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20.06.2012 Editorial

We Told You So!

By Daily Guide
Paul Tawiah Quaye, IGPPaul Tawiah Quaye, IGP
20.06.2012 LISTEN

In our standard practice of bringing to the fore shortcomings in public institutions and society in general to ensure sanity, we have had cause to put the Ghana Police Service in particular on the spot, albeit to the discomfort of the security agency's top brass.

As we mentioned in one of our commentaries, this duty is in consonance with our responsibilities as sentinels of society and democracy. No malice is intended in such occupational pastimes, we swear. Variations in such practice take place only in dictatorial regimes and since Ghana is not one of such politically backward places, we must continue to do our work without fear or favour, no matter whose ox is gored.

We live in a society where, as a result of bad governance, an all-permeating morass continues to challenge our mores; no institution is exempted from the moral challenges anyway. The police, because of their peculiar role of law enforcement, appear to be drawing a seeming disproportionate attention in this regard. Such moral depravations are not limited to the police which, as a microcosm of society, share in all the societal shortcomings.

In one of our editorials, we called the attention of the Inspector General of Police to a worrying trend regarding the payment of as much as GH¢2200 by prospective recruits to unscrupulous persons who act as proxies to some big guns.

This is not an anomaly authorized by the Police Administration, no not at all; but then some superior officers are in the know and even partake in the division of the spoils of the aberration.

We hosted a team from the Police Intelligence and Professional Standards (PIPS) following the publication of the editorial. The mission of the team was, as directed by the Chief Constable, to get us to assist the police to determine those behind the inappropriate conduct. We were expected to disclose the source of our story, a demand which was not helpful in building the necessary trust between us and the security agency.

We could smell an attempt at discrediting our story but knowing the veracity of it, we were not deterred, praying and hoping that someday the truth will manifest itself and exonerate us.

The unauthorized midnight medical examination of prospective recruits, which made negative headlines a few days ago, vindicated us and we laughed last. It is only a tip of the iceberg of recruitment malfeasance going on in the Ghana Police Service but we shall remain steadfast in our prayers so that the root would be unearthed.

Since the breaking of the news, we have been congratulated by a number of persons for championing the cause of morality, not only in the police but society as a whole.

We wish Paul Quaye well as he sets out to tackle the aberration that has dogged the country's foremost internal security organization. There are others he might be unable to do anything about, we know. The story of some police recruitment forms traced to an NDC office is one such challenge which is beyond him.

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