It's a fallacy to say military will not be involved, election security can’t be police 'baby’ – ACP Agordzo

A former head of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Benjamin Agordzo (Rtd), has said that election security is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders.

According to ACP Agordzo, maintaining security during elections is not the sole responsibility of the Police Service. He made this assertion in sequel to earlier comments made by DCOP Waabu on Joyfm, where he said categorically that the military is going to be exempted from the 2024 election operations.

Speaking in an interview on TV3, monitored by Peacefmonline.com, the retired ACP Agordzo noted that, “it is too emphatic a statement for anybody to say that the military will not be involved in the election. First of all, when it comes to election security management, there are different roles. The police may be at the forefront, they may be at the polling stations, they may be at the constituency collation centers, they may be at the regional collation centers, they may even be deployed elsewhere but there are other duties like rapid reaction forces, where they have to deal with patrols and other things.

“There are other people who may be at the borders to ensure that terrorists do not infiltrate during the period when the security forces are concentrating on the election.

“So when you look at the totality of all these, it may be that if [Waabu] had said something to the effect that the military would not be at the polling station, he may be right. If he had said something like the military may not be at the collation centers, he may be right but when he makes certain emphatic statements that the military will not be involved in the election; that is a fallacy.”

ACP Agordzo (Rtd) added that, during elections, journalists and other civil society groups should be part of the team assigned to promote peace and not just the security forces alone.

“When he said ‘it is our baby’, election issues are not the baby of the police; election security is a collective responsibility. I have even advocated that when it comes to election security, we must even have journalists there; we must have civil society instead of just making it purely military,” he added.