MPs don’t need special police protection – Bureau of Public Safety

Bureau of Public Safety has said calls for Members of Parliament (MPs) to be given police protection are unfounded.

Executive Director of the Bureau, Nana Yaw Akwada, said the argument for special police protection for the MPs is flawed.

“If we would want to accept that a group of people can block a route and rob people and kill people and our only excuse is that the police doesn’t have logistics to protect us, then, wherein lies our safety? Wherein our governance, wherein lies the security of the democracy that we seek to enjoy today? And the danger is even escalated when we begin to talk about police protection for MPs. That is the most flawed argument, the most flawed proposition I can hear from anyone in the security space. Then what about us, the ordinary Ghanaian? That is the basic question,” he said.

His comments on Citi FM follows renewed calls for special protection for the MPs after the murder of he Member of Parliament for the Mfantseman constituency, Ekow Quansah Hayford.

Mr. Hayford was shot on the Abeadze Dominase–Abeadze Duadzi–Mankessim road in the Central Region by some unknown assailants believed to be armed robbers.

The Speaker of Parliament subsequently summoned the Interior Minister to update the House on measures to enhance security during the electioneering period. The Interior Minister is expected to appear in the House on Tuesday, October 13, 2020.

Mr. Akwada said the calls are untenable

He said the legislators should instead do their job to ensure that every citizen is adequately protected and feels safe.

“We are going to sit as a civil society organization and watch all the drivers in the political space checkout of the system. It should never happen for security. As I speak now, all the key actors in this country have all checked out of the system. They don’t buy fuel, but we buy so when we are complaining that things are tough, they don’t know. They don’t pay electricity bills and everything,” he stressed.

Other civil society groups and social commentators have also kicked against the call for special protection for MPs.