Broadcaster and host of Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom-Otchere, has alleged that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) George Akuffo Dampare is shielding and empowering an elite force that exists within the Ghana Police Service with the Police Intelligence Department (PID).
Speaking on one of the Good Evening Ghana episodes, Mr Adom Otchere said he received intel from a member of the Ghana Police Service regarding these claims, following the leaked plot to oust the IGP.
“He [the informant] said there’s something in the police called P.I.D ( Police Intelligence Department) and that the PID is being used by Dr Dampare, allegedly, to empower a certain elite police group and they do anything and nobody can talk to them and they talk only to IGP and IGP has said that nobody should grant an interview,” he said.
The Police Intelligence Department, among other things, is responsible for intelligence gathering on crime and criminal activities across the country; track and predict crime; passing on processed information to appropriate Schedule Officers and Commanders for the necessary arrests, investigation and actions to be taken; liaise with Directors-General, CID and Operations to profile criminals and analyze crime trends; develop and maintain a database for persons of interest; ultimate credible informants, etc.
However, Mr Adom-Otchere claims staff from this department of the Police Service are being used to commit heinous crimes (under the orders of the ‘top police hierarchy’), including and especially murdering innocent civilians, among others.
“This guy [the informant] tells me there’s murder and that’s where I was worried; that there’s murder going on. Policemen are being killed and policemen from the PID are killing civilians indiscriminately,” he said, adding that the claims were accompanied by picture evidence of how the policemen in the PID look like, which he is willing to make available to authorities.
“They wear earrings, and they look different a little bit and they are commiting murder. In November, some young men in Tamale were on the wrong side of the Law or so it was thought. He said they have been killed by the P.I.D on the instructions of the hierarchy – that the hierarchy has asked them to kill these young men and they shot them dead in November.
Referring to a habeas corpus application filed against the police in the Northern Region regarding the alleged killing of four young men in November 2022, Paul Adom Otchere highlighted concerns about the involvement of the so-called “elite force.” Additionally, he expressed reservations about Dampare’s decision to centralise police communications across the country.
Regarding the widely circulated leaked tape advocating for Dampare’s removal, Adom-Otchere stated that the president is in favor of Dampare and has no intention of replacing him.
“Nobody wants to change Dr. Dampare even Akufo-Addo will not. When his MPs said change Ken Ofori-Atta did he change him? We are still here. Ken Ofori-Atta has won a major success by delivering the IMF, nobody is going to change him,” he added.
theindependentghana.com