No military, Ghana as a hotspot - Police chief on 2024 election security preps

A Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP), Prince Gabriel Waabu, has made some big disclosures about security arrangements for the 2024 general elections.

During an appearance on Joynews' Election Headquarters unveiling event in Accra, DCOP Waabu spoke about how deployments will be made and the issue of hotspots.

On deployments, he emphasized that election security remained a primary function of the police and that they would invite sister agencies if need be.

He stressed that the successes chalked in by-elections in 2023 would be built upon going into the general elections.

"Like how we organized all those elections within last year and whatever happened in 2022, a lesson has been learned out of it. We are not maybe going to involve the military, as it were, because it was not even the police that came up with this issue.

"So, it's going to be only the police, prisons, fire and immigration that is going to conduct these elections. They are going to support us; it is our baby, it is the police's baby, but we will want to co-opt in our sister security to help in one way or the other," he explained.

Asked whether the military had been informed about the development, he responded: "That has been sorted out by the IGP with his POMAB members, and it is a clear-cut issue; every internal issue is a police issue," DCOP Waabu added.

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On the issue of hotspots, he said: "The whole country is a hotspot. We are planning towards the whole country as a hotspot. We are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to individual issues.

"Yes, they are known, but we're not concentrating on that; those would be the hotspots on the D-Day. Because if you concentrate on that, you might forget of other places," he added.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service has issued a statement disclaiming the views of DCOP Waabu.

SARA