Police sex scandal: We will deal with officers found culpable – Dery

The Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has disclosed that, the Ghana Police Service will deal ruthlessly with any member of its Contingent working with the United Nations at South Sudan found culpable in the sexual abuse scandal.

Ghana’s 46-member team to South Sudan has been recalled for investigations to be conducted into the allegations of sexual abuse by the contingent.

“The information received indicates that some members of the FPU (Formed Police Unit) allegedly engaged in transactional sex. This is a clear breach of the U.N. and UNMISS Code of Conduct which prohibits sexual relationships with vulnerable individuals, including all beneficiaries of assistance,” a UN statement said.

It added: “UNMISS has informed U.N. headquarters in New York of the allegations, which in turn notified the Member State that the matter was being investigated by the United Nations. There is no indication that this behavior is more widespread within the Mission.”

The recall of the contingent over the claims damages Ghana’s reputation, Security expert Dr. Kwasi Aning has said.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Starr News’ Parliamentary Correspondent, the Interior Minister said the President and Ghanaians expect “our police to maintain the highest standards” wherever they are.

“They are to obey the laws here and the laws wherever they go and obey the laws and regulations of their engagements with the United Nations,” he said.

Disclosing that the United Nations agreed to allow Ghanaian Police investigators to be brought in to probe the scandal, Mr. Dery assured that “should we find any of our own culpable we are going to deal with it completely.”

“We will deal with them ruthlessly according to the law,” he stressed

His comments followed a call by a former Commanding Officer of the Formed Police Unit of the Service to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) David Asante Apeatu to fire the peacekeepers accused of the crime.

Reacting to the news, Chief Supt Yakubu said the offense is grievous and must not be entertained.

“I’ll highly commend the police administration if they are fired. This is a major offense…I think that such people should be fired. They should be fired entirely,” the no-nonsense retired police capo urged.

He blamed the sex scandal on poor leadership.

“What went wrong, I’ll attribute it to weak leadership. Did this matter just occur in a day? I don’t believe so and I think there was a series of it…it means that there might have been a build up to all these things.

“What we don’t know is that were there any indication that these people were misconducting themselves and if so what did leadership on the ground do?” Chief Supt Yakubu said on Starr Today.