General News of Tuesday, 4 March 2003

Source: Independent

IGP Under Siege

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) is presently in a situation which can best be described as a siege. Ten of his Schedule Officers working directly under him at the Police Headquarters want the acting Greater Accra Regional Commander, Kofi Boakye who is one of the arrowheads in the current war against armed robbers in the Greater Accra Region transferred to Bolgatanga.

The decision to recommend the transfer was made at a meeting of 10 out of the 11 Schedule Officers on February 24, in the absence of the IGP, Nana Owusu Nsiah. The only Schedule Officer who was not at the meeting was Dr K. K. Manfo.

The basis for the recommendation is that ACP Kofi Boakye is too young to be Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, the lemotif is that he is viewed to be an ''NDC Man'' by some of the Schedule Officers as a result of which they want him to be transferred to Bolgatanga – a sort of Siberia.

The recommendation has sparked off a spiral of wild parties amongst armed robbery gangs in Accra.

Recently the girlfriends of some armed robbers were arrested at the outskirts of Accra on the premises of a Mallam with the names of their busted boyfriends on a sheet of paper and that of ACP Kofi Boakye. Their mission? To get the Mallam ''to turn Kofi Boakye’s mind to stop chasing armed robbers and release their boyfriends.

ACP Boakye and his men at the Greater Accra Regional Police Command have been able to apprehend 72 armed robbers, 20 of whom can be described as ''notorious and hardened.''