IGP’s service extension stirs confusion in service

Kwesi Pratt Jnr claims the two-year extension of the IGP’s service has not gone down well with some Senior Police Officers.

The IGP was granted a two-year extension of service following the approval granted to a request by the Interior Ministry to the Vice-President for Mr Alhassan to stay in office to continue with his agenda of transforming the police service.

A November 8, 2013 letter signed by the Executive Secretary to the President, Dr Raymond Atuguba, said, “the President has granted a two-year extension/continuation of service to Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan.”

In communicating that information to the IGP, the Interior Minister, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, in a letter dated November 11, 2013, explained that the approval was “as a result of the recommendation of this ministry which was wholeheartedly endorsed and ratified by the Police Council, which is chaired by the Vice-President, at its maiden meeting after its inauguration on November 11, 2013”

Addressing the issue during a panel discussion on Metro TV’s ‘Good Morning Ghana’, the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper posited that the announcement regarding the two year contract extension granted the current IGP “could have been better handled”.

“We are also told that the reason for the extension of his time in office is simply because he started some reforms which have not been completed, but I think that the announcement could have been managed much better because I do know of some growing agitation within the police service against this extension. By yesterday night, it was getting very troublesome,” he revealed.

According to him, some very senior Police Officers have intimated to him that these extensions of service by government to retired officers are impeding their progression in the Service. According to him, references were made to the confusion surrounding the Brong Ahafo Regional Command, where even servicemen are at a lost, as to who is in-charge as both the acting and former Regional Commanders claim to be in control.

“Of course, they have introduce some Regional dimension, not ethnic, Regional dimension to all these contracts and I think it is important for government to sit down and find a way of managing this announcement,” he further stated.