MPs recruit unqualified people into police service – Sam George

The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram Sam George has disclosed that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), have for years, been recruiting unqualified individuals into the Ghana Police Service.

Mr. George who is a former presidential staffer in the erstwhile NDC government revealed this Friday on Morning Starr while commenting on the recent spate of police brutality — the latest involving a police officer, Gabriel Tabiri stationed at Anya Police Station.

Tabiri Tuesday went berserk and stripped a taxi driver naked for allegedly jumping red light.

The cab driver Kwabena Danso, who is traumatized, was disgraced in the open by the peacemaker with service number 36832. The officer allegedly accosted him at a Fuel Station and ended up tearing apart his clothing.

“Frequent users of that Anyaa stretch of the highway know that particular traffic light is faulty. It is usually on amber or switches to red and within a blink of an eye it turns green then amber then red,” Danso explained to Starrfmonline.com and has been corroborated by drivers who use that road often.

Scandalized by the conduct of the officer, the Ningo-Prampram legislator told Morning Starr host Francis Abban that the conduct of the officer clearly shows that he did not have the necessary training.

“…Many times if you take a close look at the individuals in the police service who carry out some of these excesses and you begin to do a back trace of their recruitment into the service, you will realize that many of them may not have necessarily made it through the regular process,” he said.

He added: “Many of them get into the police service by virtue of political influence. At times political influence is able to get people who hitherto may not have been able to make it through the rigorous checks and balances, and so because they got in through a certain ‘back door’ you realized that the proper things when it comes to training and background check on some of them are not done. And that is why at times you even see policemen who are engaged in armed robbery.”

When quizzed further by the host, he said: “This one is not partisan, this is not one political party. It cuts across. All of us we do it. I mean when NPP was in government they helped people into the (police service).

“In your time you also did it?”, asked the host, “Oh! yes we did it. NDC also did it. It is actually a thing that MPs use to campaign that Oh! me I help twenty people get into the police, forty into the army. It is a campaign issue. These are realities on the ground we can’t run away from it”.