Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) DCOP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah has said her past difficulties in life only serves to prepare her for the office she now occupies.

In an interview with Bola Ray on Starrchat, the DCOP said she hawked at Konongo station after her O’ and A’ level at Bompata Secondary school in order to support her mother and 7 other siblings as she was the second of eight children. She sold just anything that can be sold to survive. She said she continued to hawk even when he had admission to Kumasi Poly.

“I know how to cook Banku and sell cassava dough… When I come on vacation I used to sell oranges, I used to sell bread and many other things… I used to sell at Konongo Station to support my mother. I am the second of 8 children and had to support. And also back home in the village, Banka I used to sell.” she said.

“Those days that I was selling, one of the newspapers I was wrapping bread for someone I saw the police advert that they were recruiting as I was wrapping bread. So I kept that paper and I applied” she revealed.

“At that time my father had traveled to Nigeria early 80s. Unlike this time when you can send money by mobile money, those traders coming to Ghana from Nigeria my father will give them money to bring to us and it will never come. So I had to support my mother.”

About life at Bompata Secondary school, she said:

“When I went to Bompata Secondary School, there was no electricity, as part of our prospectus we had to bring lantern so for five years of my studies there, we all used lantern”.

DCOP Addo-Danquah in the interview also disputed the widely speculated falsehood that she is related to President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, revealing that the ‘Addo-Danquah’ is her husband’s name and her husband who is a lecturer at UCC French Department is not related to the President in anyway.

Narrating her police enlistment ordeal, she told Bola Ray:

“The enlistment day I took a car from Konongo and came to Accra. The person who gave me direction said Police depot is near Achimota. So I stopped at Achimota, and I think it was somewhere St Johns thereabout. So I walked all the way from St Johns to Tesano… That was my second time of coming to Accra. So I came with my O’level. When I got there the queue has formed. When I joined the queue and it got to my turn and they took my measurement, They sacked me. They said my measurement was not up to 5’4, so I should go.” she narrated.

She said she was disappointed, but she refused to leave when they asked her to.

“When they said I should leave I didn’t go. I stayed there.. Yes I was disappointed… The Chairman of the Committee doing the enlistment who became the first female Commissioner of the Ghana Police Service, Mrs Jane-Christine Donkor called me and I will never forget her. She gave me the opportunity. She had observed that I was still standing [around] after they told me to go. She asked me ‘why are you here? I remember we said you are not up to the height so go!’ And I said [please] Madam, ‘I really want to be a police woman’.”

“Then she asked for my results slip. She looked at it and then she told the team members they should allow me to go and write the exams. That’s how come I became a Police woman.” the CID Boss recalled.