Gov`t bars DCES from using police bodyguards

The Volta Regional Minister, Mr. Joseph Amenowode, has asked the newly-appointed District Chief Executives (DCEs) in the region, not to use police personnel as bodyguards during their day to day activities in their respective districts.

He said if they established a cordial relationship with their people, nobody would dream of hurting them, to merit the use of police personnel to protect them. Addressing a ceremony in Ho to hand over letters of appointment to the DCEs, the Minister said they could only use police personnel as bodyguards when there was conflict in their areas of jurisdiction.

Even with this, he said the police bodyguards must not be allowed to stand behind them when they are addressing a gathering.

Fifteen out of a total of eighteen of the newly-approved DCEs in the region were presented with their letters of appointment.

The DCEs for Ketu- South and South Dayi could not get the two thirds of the total votes, and were therefore absent at the presentation ceremony.

Mr. Amenowode also called on them to exercise a high degree of decorum as public officers.

He further charged them to be patient, tolerant, understanding and fair in their dealings with the people, and should try as much as possible to be modest, and take good care of public properties entrusted to them, in order to prove that they were capable of serving the people efficiently.

Mr. Amenowode cautioned the DCEs and their assemblies not to allow anybody to derail government policies, plans and programmes, because they had deliberative, legislative and executive functions for the overall development of their respective districts.

He urged them to work within the national agenda of the government, which is to galvanize people to build a better Ghana.

He said the assemblies should collaborate, complement, and support other agencies in the implementation of policies and programmes, in order to realise national development agenda, and that it was important for MMDCEs to strive hard to maintain peace, law and order in their areas.

Mr. Amenowode reminded the DCEs that land chieftaincy and religious conflicts, continued to pose major problems to the development of the region, and urged them to support the security agencies in the performance of their duties, so as to ensure total peace in the region for development.

The DCE for Kpando, Mr. Francis Ganyaglo, thanked the President and the Minister, as well as the various assembly members, for giving them the opportunity to serve the people, and called for cooperation and support from all, to enable them to work effectively.

The meeting, which also coincided with the meeting of the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), and was billed to start at 9:30 a.m., started at 3:44 p.m. ,which attracted condemnation from the invited personalities, as some of them described the event as unfortunate, because the VRCC, as the administrative head of the region, should be time conscious in its dealings.

The invited guests started leaving the meeting venue around 12:13 p.m. in protest against the unjustifiable delay.

This compelled the former Deputy Regional Minister, Akwasi Aboagye to apologise for the delay, explaining that the one who was bringing the appointment letters from Accra was still not in town.

At 12:33 p.m., the Regional Minister also entered the hall, and again apologised for the delay, which he attributed to the delay in the arrival of the letters of appointment from Accra. The ceremony finally got underway at 3:44 p.m.