Operation Vanguard had obstacles that hampered its activities – Security Expert
Mr. Kwabena Otuo Acheampong, a Security Expert, reported that "Operation Vanguard," a joint military-police effort to combat illegal mining in the country, had operational obstacles that hampered its on-the-ground activities.
He identified trust and transparency as issues; while the police felt marginalized in the planning of operations, the military did not trust the police.
"The military feared that the police would leak information about planned operations to their local counterparts." "The police also believed that the lack of openness on the part of the military, which led operations, meant that they had been compromised," he claimed.
Mr. Acheampong, who is also a law enforcement officer, spoke about the impact of military police operations in the fight against illegal mining across the country in an interview.
He recalled that in 2017, the government began a military police operation to combat illegal mining in the country, emphasizing that "the dynamics of Operation Vanguard were different from other joint military police operations."
Another setback for Operation Vanguard, he added, was the separation of suspects caught for illicit mining from the exhibits related to them.
While arrested individuals were detained at local police stations, their excavators, vehicles, weapons, mobile phones, and other items were kept at Operation Vanguard camps, according to Mr. Acheampong.
"This defeated the purpose of the chain of custody and created accountability issues, culminating in the missing of several exhibits." "This hampered prosecution efforts," he admitted.
He claimed that during Operation Vanguard, the military, and police collaborated and trained together in Bundase, a military training facility.
He did, however, thank the military and civil police for the countless operations the two security forces had carried out in collaboration to restore internal security.
He explained that whenever internal security issues overwhelm the police, the military is usually called in to either assist or, in most cases, to take over from the police, restore law and order, and then withdraw so that the police can continue their traditional role of maintaining law and order.
Mr. Acheampong, who is also a Law Enforcement Officer, recalled recent examples of such collaboration as the Hohoe Disturbances in 2012, Operation Calm Life, and the Bawku Crisis.
He stated that instructors from both the military and the police educated officers and men on themes such as human rights, arrest, cordon, searches, and deployment techniques.
After three weeks of pre-deployment training at Bundase, the officers and men from both the military and the police were transferred together to the Operation camps at Obuase, Tarkwa, and New Abirem.
According to the security expert, the military and the police shared a kitchen, ate, slept, planned, and performed missions together; "by and large, Operation Vanguard, which was of a hybrid nature, was unique and a novelty with no precedent."
---CDA Consult II Contributor