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General News of Friday, 23 May 2003

Source: gna

Police to make inventory of firearms

A five-member committee has been set up by the Police Administration to make inventory of weapons and ammunitions at the various Police stations.

This follows the recent incidents of Policemen issuing arms to criminals, Nana Stephen Owusu-Nsiah, Inspector General of Police, announced on Thursday.

Addressing the first Regional Police Commanders Conference for the year in Accra, he said: "We are going to closely monitor the control of firearms and any Police Officer, who is found to have given out firearms to unauthorised persons would be charged and sent to court.

"In an event of any Police Officer getting involved in this scandal, the armourer at the particular station would be sent to court as an accomplice if the weapon was supposed to be under his care." He charged Regional Police Commanders to supervise the various Police projects in their regions, adding; " you should always liase with contractors on the projects to make sure that the right things are done."

Nana Owusu-Nsiah urged the Officers to build healthy relations between the Police, the Public and the Media and take active steps to encourage the formation of neighbourhood watchdog committees. He said the current constitutional dispensation called for creative leadership with vision and integrity.

"It is time to put our house in order if we were to succeed in our fight against lawlessness in the country. Leadership involves decision making, problem-solving, creative thinking and communication."

He urged them to wage war on indiscipline and offer sound leadership to win the hearts of their subordinates and the civilians in their communities.