Police Chief RAPS OBUASI POLICE ...THEY SUPPORT LAWLESSNESS

The Inspector-General of Police(IGP), Mr. Peter Nanfuri, has castigated the Obuasi police for compromising with in discipline and lawlessness, leading to the denial of residents a peaceful life.

"There are some people in this town who call themselves terrorists; you know them but you fear to arrest them and so they have taken the law into their own hands," he said. Mr. Nanfuri expressed these sentiments when he addressed a cross-section of officers and men of the Obuasi police at the weekend as part of his visit to the Ashanti Region.

"I have come to interact with you on certain press and individual reports which are haunting me, because this place is not in the control of the police," he said.

He gave the assurance that the Police Administration would do everything possible to ensure that the people of Obuasi enjoyed peaceful lives.

"If it needs more men to arrest the miscreants, we will do so to enable the people here to enjoy free and peaceful movement," he stressed.

The IGP questioned why there should be sufficient policemen in Obuasi but the people could not move about freely in the night and reminded them that since they were paid from the tax-payers money, they had an obligation to protect the people. He said they were not posted to Obuasi to check "galamsey" operators only, adding: "You are here for the betterment of the people."

Mr. Nanfuri also took the Obuasi Motor Traffic Unit (MTU) to task. He told them: "Because you have been asking for money from taxi and tro-tro drivers, you cannot control them. What I saw myself when I entered the township means that the drivers are in discipline."

Mr. Nanfuri warned that he would not tolerate it "if you cannot maintain discipline among tro-tro and taxi drivers in the Obuasi township".