General News of Monday, 20 February 2017

Source: starrfmonline.com

Rein in your ‘rampaging’ task force - MP to government

President Akufo-Addo President Akufo-Addo

The Member of Parliament for Sekyere Affram Plains, Alex Adomako Mensah, has sternly condemned the task force set up by the government to trail and retrieve alleged looted state vehicles, describing their modus operandi as outlandish.

According to him, the flagrant nature with which members of the force flout laws, meant to ensure law and order, is worrying.

He thus charged the President, Akufo-Addo, to immediately rein in the rampaging force before it plunges the country into chaos.

The force on Saturday, February 18, 2017 impounded the lawmaker’s vehicle on the assumption that it was looted from the state.

Mr. Mensah who confirmed the incident to Starr News’ Regina Borley Bortey on Sunday, February 18, 2017 told Francis Abban on Morning Starr Monday that the anonymity of the force threatens the country’s peaceful co-existence.

“The government must be a little more careful because if bad people jump into the system and try to seize peoples’ cars; what will the government do,” he said of the anonymity of the task force.

“If you delegate your power to people and they acted in good faith or bad faith then it comes to you as a leader. So the leader (Akufo-Addo) has to order them so that sanity will be maintained in this country,” he added.

The Task Force

The government on February 4, 2017 set up a special task force to track and retrieve all state assets with certain individuals including ex-government officials who are yet to return those assets.

The task force includes members from the Ghana Police Service, Bureau of National Investigations, the Ghana Revenue Authority (Customs Division), the Driver Vehicle Lisensing Authority and Office of the President.

A statement signed by the Chief of Staff Frema Osei-Opare stated that various state assets including landed properties and vehicles are yet to be handed over to government by individuals contrary to law.

The setting up of the Task Force comes after some security officials stormed the residence of the National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress Kofi Adams to seize some five vehicles which allegedly belonged to the state.