IGP to be kicked out in 2011

…Internal plot thickens for a major onslaught

By Livingstone Pay Charlie

Current Inspector General of Police (IGP), Paul Tawiah Quaye, needs to put his feet down in the web of internal lobbying and politics else he will find himself kicked out by 2011.

Though the IGP has embarked upon very robust reforms which many have acknowledged are paying substantial dividends, indications are that some political elements are finding his presence at the law enforcement agency uncomfortable. Daily Post intelligence monitoring has uncovered an embryonic plot to oust him from office. The plot began just last month. It thickened last week when the IGP stamped his authority and made dramatic changes at the police hierarchy, both headquarters and regional levels.

Some casualties in the shake-up are reported not to be enthused about their new designations. Notable among them are Joana Osei Poku, former Head of the Human Resource Development unit who is said to have partnered the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to embark on questionable recruitment into the police service as well as former CID boss, Frank Adu-Poku, who is alleged to have developed cold-feet on the current government’s agenda to investigate and prosecute corrupt officers of the Kufuor administration.

Over the weekend, word went round that the reshuffle Mr. Quaye carried out was politically motivated and some of the casualties have been holding series of meetings with their political godfathers in the NPP.

This paper’s checks last Saturday reveal that three subsequent meetings have been scheduled for this week, to discuss and explore strategies for the IGP’s ouster. According to very credible sources, leading the agenda from within is a police officer at the very top. Police insiders are increasingly getting worried over his undermining attitude on the IGP.

According to sources, he is particularly peeved after losing out in the race to succeed Mr. Patrick Acheampong, the last IGP in the erstwhile Kufuor government. All things being equal, if this NPP agenda sees the light of day, this senior police officer will be in pole position to take over from Paul Tawiah Quaye as Ghana’s IGP. One interesting thing about this plot is that some NDC power-brokers are to be enticed by mouth-watering offers to play leading roles in the IGP’s ouster, a usually reliable source hinted Daily Post over the weekend. The ramification that stares the NDC in the face in the daunting task to retain power in 2012 is that the Police Service will be highly contrived to be bias in both the strong and weak holds of the ruling government. Politics and its ‘politicking’ assumed very vital dimension in the Ghana Police Service and other allied security institutions during the days of Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah whose life was threatened so many times by some greedy officers who pandered to the whims and caprices of other interested parties such as the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, faced with some policemen who were not interested in the national agenda of maintaining law and order, decided to restructure it, a move which was perceived by some to be disbanding the security agencies. Today, the two leading parties, NDC and NPP, have courted support in the Ghana Police Service. Some have been through the deliberate efforts of the parties; the Kufuor government, for instance, is reported to have recruited misfits into the Service. These misfits came to be known and called ‘Party Police’. Some police officers though, are on record to have approached the political parties and identified their affiliations. This has sharply divided the officers into the two camps. Though police officers have a right to join political parties, the law requires that they must not display it openly. Service regulations define their broad parameters as keeping and enforcing law and order. With regards to the thickening plot to oust Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye, some police chiefs told this reporter last week that it must be taken seriously. They advised President Mills not to listen to calls for the IGP to be sacked. “It will be disastrous for the NDC in 2012,” a police chief warned.