ACP Eklu, the Director General of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on how violent issues had been managed in recent times resulting in some amount of peace currently existing in the country.

He said the President’s stance together with that of the Ministers on peace and security against actions by these groups has allayed the fear of victimisation from the Police, adding ‘’the political decision is an encouragement to the Police’’.

It is recalled that in one such stance, in January 2018, President Akufo-Addo suspended the Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Sulemana Alhassan, from office with immediate effect.The Minister’s suspension was occasioned by violent attacks some NPP supporters meted out to the Upper West Regional Coordinator of NADMO, Mr Seidu Sulemana following disputes relating to internal polling station elections.

The Minister allegedly intervened in the matter and appeared to have overruled a mass arrest of the perpetrators of the violent action by the police after visiting the scene of the incident.

 A statement that was issued and signed by the Director of Communications at the Flagstaff House, Mr Eugene Arhin said Alhaji Alhassan would remain on suspension pending the outcome of an investigation into the unfortunate incidents that occurred on the premises of the Upper West Regional Office.

Based on public criticism, ACP Eklu said , the Police were condemned immediately after the 2016 elections due to attacks by Delta Force and it came up again in November 2017 and these actions caused public apprehension as far as vigilante groups were concerned.He indicated that there was also the sense of insecurity as far as activities of political hooligans who started committing certain crimes were concerned.

ACP Eklu noted that to address the issue, the Police administration needed to appraise their own activities and listed and analysed cases of vigilantism.  He said the police had feedback from the jurisdictions where those actions happened to enable them to ascertain what had been done in the past and if actions taken were wrong or right.

He said following this, the IGP convened a meeting in November 2017 where a Regional Commanders conference was held after which a communiqué was issued with a resolution that Commanders who failed to take action against such acts would be sanctioned.

The Public Affairs Director General indicated that Commanders gave accounts of what they had done adding that in some cases, arrests were made and some of the cases were still pending in courts.

He also indicated that whilst some cases were resolved by the regional Security Council, the Regional Police Commander gave some verbal warning to those who go to radio stations and make noise to make sure they do not break the law and this warning worked magic for the police.