It would be defeatist to resign — IGP

THE Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Peter Nanfuri, has stated that it would be defeatist and indeed, an act of cowardice for him or any top officer of the Police Administration to resign over the inability of the police to apprehend the brains behind the killing of women in the metropolis.

He stated: “It is, indeed, a big challenge to us to find the suspects and we will surely take the bull by the horns to resolve these killings,” adding that “the police sincerely share the concerns and frustrations of the public but that is not to say that we are not doing anything about it”.

Mr Nanfuri was answering questions at a news conference in Accra yesterday to highlight efforts being made by the police to apprehend the suspects who have killed 30 women since December 1997.

The latest victim, whose identity has not yet being established, was dumped off the Spintex Road in Accra last Monday.

According to the IGP, the police will surely apprehend the suspects.

“It will take time to arrest them but we surely will,” he said, and pointed out that although it has not been easy, it will not take that long for the security agencies to apprehend the suspects.

When asked to give assurance that there will be no more murders until the police arrest the suspects, Mr Nanfuri said “I cannot assure you that there will be no more murders. We shall only take measures to curtail it if only they will work for us all”.

Mr Nanfuri reiterated his call to members of the public to assist the police with information to enable them to arrest the perpetrators of the heinous crimes since the Police Administration have specialists to conduct thorough investigations if the information is made available.

He said the police have its own clues in handling these cases but need the information to utilise those clues to the satisfaction of all Ghanaians.

When asked if the work-load on Commissioner in-charge of Criminal Investigations Department, Mr W. K. Aboah, who doubles as Director of Immigration, was not too much, Mr Aboah himself responded by saying that it is the responsibility of government to decide that and not the IGP.

According to him, he has successfully discharged the duties of a Commissioner CID and Director of Immigration to the best of his ability and is happy with his performance.

He said as IGP or Commissioner of CID, one’s duty is to give directives to field officers and not take responsibility of the field work, adding that there was nothing wrong with his dual position.

Mr Aboah said detectives of his unit have received some training from officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) of the United States of America to help improve upon their performance.

He said the FBI team, which look through the profiles of investigation procedures of the police into the killings, have certified that the normal procedures have been followed except that the public has not been forthcoming with information to assist in their investigations.

He said what the team has established so far is that the victims have always been strangulated, scratches on their bodies, legs open, condoms and torn panties lying by them.

Mr Aboah said the police is yet to establish whether it is an individual or a group of persons behind the killings.