Security agencies to appoint spokespersons to speak on security

The security agencies led by the Ghana Police Service will appoint spokespersons to speak on security issues during the December elections.

The spokespersons would be appointed at the Regional, District and constituency levels under the standard operation of all the security agencies whose personnel will be deployed to manage security at the various polling stations.

The measure is aimed at managing information and to ensure that media reports do not inflame passions.

Commissioner of Police (COP) Mr. John Kudalor, Director of Operations, disclosed this when he addressed an Annual General Meeting of Police Course 37 in Koforidua on the topic “Police professionalism, the key to successful elections”.

He noted that this year’s election would be crucial, adding that from experiences in previous elections the police would not want to leave any thing to chance.

DCOP Kudalor said the Police administration would organize training for all its personnel including personnel from the other security agencies who would be deployed for effective performance during the polling day.

He said already 16,000 pamphlets had been printed to reinforce the training and would be distributed to junior officers in particular, for them to know what they were expected to do during the elections.

Mr. Kudalor indicated that the police had a pivotal role to play and therefore it was imperative to exhibit high standards of professionalism and that showing of party affiliation by any police officer was a serious breach of police code of conduct.

He said it was unacceptable for relatives living with police personnel to do politics or show their political inclinations and urged the police to guard against such developments that could erode the confidence and trust of the public in them.

COP Kudalor urged the course participants who were made up of Senior Police officers from the ranks of Deputy Superintendents, to be alert and ensure that junior officers who would be deployed in their districts would do what was expected of them.

Mrs. Fanny Aboagye, Director of Police Training at the Kofi Anan International Peace Training Centre (KAIPTC) and President of Course 37, said the theme was to enlighten the security personnel who were mainly district commanders on their specific roles and what not to do to ensure a successful election.