News:
March 18, 2015
Even before the IGP-led special task force investigating the recent fraudulent police recruitment presents its report to Government possibly on Friday, some MPs have called its neutrality into question.
Speaking on behalf of his colleague MPs, a member of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markins told Joy News a ministerial committee would do “a better job”.
He fears that the police will not do a “thorough job” because several scams are being investigated by the police and “we are not getting appropriate responses”.
He said his suspicion is also grounded on the fact that the Interior Minister got wind of the recruitment scam, and informed the Service months ahead, and yet nothing was done with the intel.
Mr. Afenyo-Markins argued that under this “circumstance you cannot trust the police to be judges in their own court”, emphasising the need for President Mahama to commission a ministerial enquiry into the scam to “clean their own battered reputation”.
“The IGP (Mohammed Alhassan) himself must appear before the [ministerial] committee,” he said explaining that in some jurisdictions the IGP should have resigned or should have been asked to resign.
Director of Police Human Resource and Administration COP Patrick Timbillah who has been interdicted in connection with the fraud is set to face service enquiry. But the MP said, with the magnitude of the fraud, he disagrees with that approach, more importantly when civilians involved in the case are being tried in court.
Afenyo-Markins who is the MP for Effutu is however raising an eyebrow asking if COP Timbillah would “risk hostaging his professional fortune… it doesn’t seem to add up”.
He also suspects Mr. Timbillah may have been “set up” in the case, making it necessary for the top police officer to publicly speak about the issue.
The MP’s position contradicts that of the chairman of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Fritz Baffuor who had told Joy News the committee is satisfied with what is being done by the police service and have full confidence in them.
Meanwhile, a deputy ranking member of the committee, Major (rtd) Derrick Oduro said the committee would constitute its own independent enquiry into the issue.