Interdicted Timbilla to face prosecution

The Ghana Police Council has directed that COP Patrick Timbilla and others should remain on interdiction after studying a report by the special investigative task force which probed the recruitment fraud that hit the Service.

The Police Council chaired by Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur after a crucial meeting on Monday, March 23, 2015 said all service personnel indicted in the report should remain on interdiction pending the advice of the Attorney General.

According to a statement by the Director of Public Affairs, Superintendent Cephas Arthur, a docket is being prepared on the suspects which include two other police personnel and 11 civilians.

“At the end of the meeting, the Police Council, endorsing the report submitted by the taskforce that all the Police Officers investigated in the fraud case should remain on interdiction,” the statement said.

It added: “That internal disciplinary action should be initiated into the conduct of the officers, and that this is without prejudice to any criminal prosecutions that may be directed by the Attorney-General’s Office against them.

“That the case docket should be processed and same forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Office for legal directives as a matter of urgency.”

“That the Police Administration should take measures to sensitise and continue to educate the public on police recruitment processes so to avoid re-occurrence of this incident,” the statement said.

“We, therefore, urge the general public and our stakeholders, to continue to give us their support in this regard.”

Background

On March 1, 2014 hundreds of young men and women turned up at five police training depots for enlistment in the Ghana Police Service but left disappointed after they found out it was a scam.

It was found that their recruitment letters, which had the signature of Mr Timbila, were fake and that the purported enlistment was a fraud.

It took the police a hectic time to drive away the victims, most of them university graduates, who had gone to the Kumasi, Koforidua, Pwalugu, Accra and Ho Police depots with their luggage to begin the training.

The victims were said to have paid money ranging from GH¢2,000 to GH¢3,500 to the fraudsters.

The police have since arrested 12 people, including two policemen, as part of investigations to unmask the people behind the latest police recruitment scam.

Two suspects, Aisha Asumda, alias Aisha Boku Masi, a 36-year-old shea butter seller, suspected to have played a key role in the scam, and her accomplice, Alifa Adams, were arrested at Tesano and Adenta, respectively, following a tip off.

The five other suspects include Amos Brown, 40, a radio presenter; General Corporal Gideon Sarpong of the Visibility Unit, Takoradi; Constable Ruth Agyiri, 27, Central Police Station, Koforidua.

The rest are Pastor Paul Danso from Tarkwa and Richard Harrison, 30.