Ashanti Regional Police Commander says he has accepted responsibility for security lapses which allowed members of Delta Force to storm a circuit court and free suspects, Thursday afternoon.
DCOP Yeboah says police did not anticipate the violent conduct from members of the Delta Force; a pro-New Patriotic Party vigilante group.
Police has come under barrage of attacks from the public, including the regional Peace Council for doing little to ensure peaceful trial.
Chairman of the Ashanti Regional Peace Council, Professor Seth Opuni Asiamah who has been enraged by the conduct of the police insist “police should take a very big part of the blame” for their role.
“Delta Force takes full blame for what they have done but police could have prevented what happened in court yesterday [Thursday] if they had taken preventive measures,” Prof Asiamah chastized police.
DCOP Ken Yeboah admits police got it wrong and personally takes a full responsibility.
“We did not get it right there and has to admit that we didn’t get it right there and as a leader, I have to accept responsibility for that,” he admitted.
He says though the command had put up a stand-by team in place to ensure maximum security at the KMA Circuit Court, there was a break in communication which delayed police response.
According to DCOP Yeboah, police were deceived by the cooperation it enjoyed from Delta Force members who had earlier turned themselves in to the police.
“I must admit because the accused persons turned themselves in right from day one. They were arrested and were granted bail. [Since then] they’ve been reporting to the police on daily basis and then when we fixed the date for them to appear before court, they went there and so we did not anticipate that there was going to be that kind of violence that we witnessed,” he explained.
That notwithstanding, DCOP Ken Yeboah says the security breach experienced at the beginning of the trial has thought the police some lessons.
“It has given us a lesson that next time; we will not take things for granted.”
Source: Ghana I Nhyira FM I Ohemeng Tawiah