In Ghana, the police service has implemented a special arrangement where officers are deployed to provide guard and escort duties for banks across the country.
This initiative aims to generate additional funds to support the administration. However, these officers face significant risks as they are exposed to potential attacks by armed robbers.
To ensure the safety of these officers, it is crucial that they are equipped with modern weapons and provided with bulletproof vests. Unfortunately, the reality is that police officers on guard or escort duties are often armed only with AK-47 rifles, which remain their primary means of protection. This leaves them vulnerable to external threats while carrying out their duties.
While the police administration benefits financially from this arrangement with banks, it is disheartening to note that the officers who put their lives on the line do not receive any extra compensation despite the inherent risks involved.
“If you are lucky and you find yourself at a bank that is ‘generous’, you are paid 100 cedis a week” one officer told www.247newsgh.com
Another officer lamented about the dangers they face and yet the police administration has refused to provide them the needed bullet proof vest to keep them alive on their job.
“We are just risking our lives, no one even cares, if you get injured or hurt, you are replaced’
The sentiment is one that is shared by a lot of the police officers who find themselves on guard or escort duties and even those not assigned.
Between 2020 and 2021 there were heightened attacks on bullion Vans. Police Officers accompanying the money, were attacked by armed robbers and sadly lost their lives.
This forced the administration to talk tough.
The Ghana police service led by then Inspector General of Police James Oppong Buenu threatened to withdraw their escort service unless the banks provided fortified armoured vehicles. The banks were given a two week ultimatum.
The then IGP had described the pool of vehicles used as bullion vans as ‘not fit for purpose’
The Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service, Ken Yeboah, also announced that police officers accompanying ‘bullion vans’ will be well protected. He went further to say that there would be more than one police officer following a bullion van.
That same year, the Bank of Ghana announced in July 2021 that Banks would use armoured bullion vans.
All these directives were not adhered to by the the Bank of Ghana or the police service.
Two years down the line and under the current IGP, George Akuffo Dampare, nothing has changed.
Police Officers still lack sophisticated weapons and bulletproof vest while on guard duties
Lack of motivation, and proper remuneration is why some of the police officers have compromised their positions, becoming accomplices of this criminal gang that is attacking ‘the not fit for purpose bullion vans.
In 2022 the police administration announced that about 8 of their officers were involved in a series of bullion van robberies.
The Police administration arrested four of their officers in a raid to uncover the suspects behind the bullion Van attacks. Two other officers who were suspects were killed during a raid to arrest more suspects.
A number of police officers on these special duties have repeatedly complained about the unavailability of bulletproof vests and sophisticated weapons to protect them on these assignments, aside the not fit for purpose bullion vans.
As the administration sits unconcerned, another police officer has been shot and killed in Ablekuma.
Source: www47newsgh.com