Pay rise for security services

The Minister for the Interior, Papa Owusu Ankomah, has told journalists that the government has increased the pay for all the security agencies under his ministry and that they are not working under poor conditions of service as being alleged.

The minister, who was answering a question posed to him by the press at the press encounter organized by the Minister for Information, Mr. Dan Botwe in Takoradi on Monday, about the alleged grumbling in the Police Service due to poor conditions of service said the new salary for the security men and women came into force just recently.

The minister, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi, also told the journalists that the security men themselves are aware of the new salary they are receiving and therefore it would be wrong for anyone to go round saying that the government was not taking proper care of the security men.

Papa Owusu Ankomah said the only problem confronting them was accommodation especially for the policemen and women.

According to him, recruited 7,000 men and women have been recruited into the Ghana Police Service to help fight crime and other related issues in the country.

He said but for the accommodation problem the 7,000 figure could have even gone up.

The interior minister said government is securing a $200million loan to put up more police stations across the country and barracks to help solve the accommodation problem.

He appealed to the various district assemblies in the country to also come in and help by putting up barracks that could accommodate police officers in their localities.

Touching on the attack of travelers on our highways especially in the night by armed robbers the interior minister said the situation was under control and that they have devised a strategy to combat the activities of the armed robbers.

The minister for Information, Mr. Dan Botwe, on his part, said the regional ministers would no more be traveling to Accra to meet the press on the ?meet the press? programme they had introduced.

According to him, the regional ministers would this time round meet the press in their respective regions since the local press have deeper knowledge about what was going on in the regions.