Police officers fail mission and vision of service test

The Director-General of Police In charge of National Patrols, COP Yaagy Akuribah, on Monday felt embarrassed in Tamale when senior police officers in the Northern region could not recite lines of the mission and vision of the Ghana Police Service.

The Police Director, however, became amused and mocked the police officers who couldn’t again name any of the thematic areas of the transformational agenda of the Inspector General of the Service.

In an angry response, COP Yaagy said henceforth, he may consider shooting any police officer, who would not be able to memorize the mission and vision of the police service.

“Is it not in front of your divisional headquarters? Every office is supposed to have it – commander do you have it? So you see, if you go out somewhere, you say you are a policeman – Ghana Police Service and then they ask you what’s your mission and you don’t know, if I have a gun I will shoot you,” Mr. Akuribah made his frustration public.

The regional police leaders hugely embarrassed themselves in a hall full of reporters and leaders of the Youth Employment Agency when the two state agencies met to share a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the community policing service.

The engagement held at the Regional Library was to announce to the regional police top leaders the agreement reached between YEA and security service on ways to enhance the efforts of the community policing service to help the police fight crime.

The drama however unfolded when the Director General, who was to present the MoU, decided to conduct basic service test for the officers including, the regional commander, his deputy, the police spokesman, Metropolitan Municipal and District commanders, top investigators and regional unit heads.

The officers became totally uncommunicative when the national police patrol boss asked whether anyone among them could recite lines of the mission and vision of the work they do – police service.

The hall, however, came back to life when the police director asked the officers about the mission and vision of their various houses of worship.

An officer who stood up proudly to memorize the mission and vision of his church was left standing out of shame when he couldn’t recite that of the police service.

DCOP Samuel Adusei Sarpong and his men at that incredible moment murmured and watched sideways out of uneasiness of the situation.

COP Akuribah who was unable to conceal his disappointment abandoned the presentation and descended into condemning the growing indiscipline in the service where he mentioned how he had ordered investigations into an incident involving some police patrol officers at the Asawaba check point in the Brong Ahafo region.

He said those officers were being probed for many alleged professional violations. He explained one was caught at post without his uniform on. Others were also without name tags on their uniforms.

He continued his endless outrage at the police officers and said the episode unwrapped at the meeting was part of reasons the service kept losing its integrity in the eye of the Ghanaian public.

Mr. Yaagy later resumed his address by projecting the mission and vision of the police service on a painted wall and many officers pulled out their phones to film and take shots of the statements.

“So if you can remember the vision of your church then you should be able to recite that of the police because it’s the police that would pay you before you go and pay your tithe, so try and memorize the job that would give you money to go and contribute,” the COP said, bringing some respite to the restless regional police heads.