In the wake of the ongoing controversy within the Ghana Police Service about the appointment of Dr. George Akuffo Dampare as the Inspector General of Police (IGP), a Security Expert and Senior UN Mediation Advisor, Dr. Emmanuel Bombande, has suggested the country reviews the current approach of appointing officers into that position.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) is the most senior Police Officer in Ghana.
The IGP is appointed by the president of Ghana acting in consultation with the Council of State. The IGP is the head of the Police Service and is responsible for the operational control and administration of the service.
But speaking in an interview on PM Express on JoyNews on Tuesday, September 12, Dr. Bombande recommended that among all the senior-most police officers at any given time, a president should consider appointing three of them to undergo vetting, out of which one would be selected for the position with a fixed tenure.
He believes this will cure the perception that IGPs are largely appointed based on political considerations and not mainly on merit or competence.
“After the current IGP, we need to keep the standard, and so how about a good search that arrives at three senior officers, the COPs that the president who’s the appointing authority presents the list to the Police Council or whoever to vet and arrive at choosing one which then goes with a tenure.”
“That way, you went for an interview and you were recruited and everyone knows that you have four years and no one can go around trying to undermine you. That for me will be concrete. Our antidote, our resilience for stability in the volatility we find ourselves in West Africa and the whole of Africa is dependent on the efficiency and the effectiveness of the police and allied institutions.”
The appointment of IGPs has become a recent subject of debate after a senior police officer, COP George Alex Mensah, was captured on tape together with another police officer and a former Northern Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) allegedly plotting to remove the current IGP from office.
Later when he appeared before an ad-hoc committee of parliament set up to probe the allegations captured in a leaked tape that has gone viral, COP Alex Mensah made it known clearly that he had always wanted to be the IGP and had been lobbying for the position since 2017.
For many who followed his submissions before the committee, they have concluded that the COP who’s headed for retirement was merely settling a personal score with the IGP because he’s jealous of him or interested in his position.
Among other things, COP Alex Mensah confidently described the current IGP as the worst he had seen in his years of service, a wild claim that has sharply divided opinions.
In the audio tape that went viral, the officers were heard suggesting that should the current IGP remain in office, the NPP would most likely lose the election, and that removing him would be to the party’s advantage.
This led to the formation of the bi-partisan parliamentary committee to probe the matter.
Meanwhile, Dr. Emmanuel Bombande has pooh-poohed the claim that the current Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, is the worst to have served in that position.
In the view of Dr. Bombande, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare will rather “go down in history as the best IGP we ever had.”