Dismantle Dampare’s centralized police communication quickly — Samson Lardi to IGP Yohuno

Ghanaian broadcast journalist and private legal practitioner, Samson Lardi Anyenini, has urged the new Inspector General of Police (IGP), Christian Tetteh Yohuno, to dismantle the centralized police communication system introduced by his predecessor, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare.

Dr. Dampare, who was recently relieved of his duties restricted police communication to the headquarters in Accra.

The Ghana Police Service reps at the regional and district levels were gagged from engaging journalists and the public on issues of interest at the local level.

Security issues at the local are communicated to the public solely through official press statements by the national headquarters.

In a social media post on Monday, March 17, Samson Lardi advised that officers should speak to incidents under their jurisdictions to the public rather than relying on a PR officer at the headquarters in Accra.

“Dear IGP, quickly dismantle the centralized police communication introduced by Dampare. We did everything, but he refused to change it.

“Let those close to the action be the ones to speak, and not a PR officer sitting in Accra, far removed from the issues people seek information about. Let them interact and take questions, not just issue statements from Accra,” he wrote.

The legal practitioner further revealed that media stakeholders had repeatedly engaged the former IGP about the unconstitutionality of his approach, but he refused to listen.

“We had meetings with him and gave all the reasons why the approach was wrong—even unconstitutional and against the spirit of Article 21’s requirement for the people to know.

“You don’t need to be spending their money on a police TV station when the best way to get the message across widely is through existing media platforms,” he stressed.