Managing Editor of the Custodian Newspaper, Awudu Mahama has advised the government to give the various security agencies their independence to undertake recruitment exercises.
According to him, the kind of people recruited into the country’s security agencies, especially the police service and national security agency is worrying.
To him, the police service especially has ceased its two-year background investigation carried out on its recruits because of political interference.
“We need to be critical on the kind of people we recruit into our security agencies, especially those in the national security. Sometimes these operatives are party foot soldiers. But my major concern here is the high level of protocol recruitment into the police service,” he told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning show.
He indicated that some criminal elements find themselves benefiting from these protocol police recruitment “and because we no more go through these criminal background checks, these people tend to leak police raids to their fellows.”
Comparing the military to the other security agencies, he admitted that the military is the only agency that hardly harbours criminal elements. “You can get into the military through protocol recruitment but their training roots out all criminal elements but I cannot say the same for the police, immigration, customs and others.”
The media man added that the influx of criminal elements from across the bordering nations can also be attributed to increasing crime rates in the country. “Because of this influx of criminals into the country, we need to increase our border patrol.”
He advised the sitting government to invest in the retooling and training of police officers to maximize safety in the country. “Security of a country is very important and we need to invest in it as a country. There is no amount of spending that can compare to country’s security.”
The issue of security in the country has become a major topic in the media following the recent robbery attack on a Bullion Van that left two dead and one injured.
Armed robbers shot to death a police officer and an eyewitness during a robbery incident involving a bullion van at Adedenkpo, a suburb of James Town in Accra, last week Monday.
In the same week, another bullion van was attacked near Gomoa Dominase in the Central Region. In this incident, however, the bullion van crew managed to escape the attack unhurt.
There have been other cases of robberies and killings reported in other parts of the country.
Some persons have suggested that the bullion van attacks and other daylight robberies recorded in the country in recent times show a failure on the part of the country’s security agencies.