Timbillah house arrest: Police image battered - Dr Aning

Security expert, Dr. Kwesi Aning is calling for an immediate institution of a bi-partisan committee to review various commissions' reports on the Ghana Police Service as a step to restoring the service's dented image.

The police service has yet another image denting scandal to deal with as a top police officer, COP Patrick Timbillah was implicated in last week's fraudulent police recruitment exercise.

COP Timbillah who is charge of Human Resource and Administration was interdicted on Friday and put under house arrest , Police Director of Public Affairs DCOP Rev. David Ampa-Benin confirmed to Joy News.

“To say I am surprised is mild”, Dr. Aning told Joy News' Evans Mensah, emphasising that he is “saddened because of the person involved and the Ghana Police Service that I love so much”.

“If the investigations were to conclude that what we are hearing is correct, then I think this will almost sound the death nail of the Ghana Police Service.

“Let me explain, over the past decade there have been disturbing instances in cases in which officers of all ranks have been complicit in all kinds of malfeasance,” he pointed out

Recalling some damning whitepaper reports about the police service, Dr. Aning said it is important for the police council and the president to set up a bi-partisan committee of experts to go into previous inquiries and commissions' reports  and recommend how the Ghana Police Service can be moved forward.

He believes the diligent work of the committee would go a long way to help the service “reclaim the credibility that it deserves”.

For now Mr. Timbillah's alleged implication lends credence to public perception that the police is "inherently corrupt".

It also confirms numerous Afrobarometer reports and surveys which indicted the police service as being the most corrupt institution in Ghana but have all been robustly denied by the service.

Dr. Aning however called on all to exercise restraint when commenting on the issue.

“How do we help the service to reclaim the credibility that it deserves. What tough structural interventions do we need to make, what kind of performance indicators and performance contract do we need to give to the very top people.

“How do we ensure that public perception of the service as inherently corrupt and having an institutional culture that embellishes this culture? How can we deal with it?”

The security expert is also worried the sophistication of the fraudulent recruitment exercise and the inability of the national security to uncover it has a “wider security implication”.  

What kind of criminal activities are going on that can undermine the sanctity of the nation but have not been detected by the security agencies, Dr. Aning wondered.