Regional News of Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Source: etvghana.com

Police charged to ensure peaceful elections

Chief Operations Officer of UT Holdings, Captain Budu Koomson has charged the Ghana Police Service to display professionalism and integrity in its operations as the country nears the December polls.

Mr Koomson who was speaking at a recent media encounter organized by policy think tank, Imani Ghana, lamented recent incidents which had brought to question the integrity and professionalism of the security agency.

He said the failure of security agencies to pick up the signals early enough in the recent religious strife in Hohoe, and some unrest in Odododiodio during the biometric voter registration exercise is worrying.

Captain Budu Koomson expressed his dissatisfaction over the manner with which the police have managed some disturbances among other issues that cast doubt over their commitment to ensure a peaceful election.

He therefore called on all stakeholders to strive to ensure that the December election is free of violence.

“The leadership of the police service should make a public declaration to all public and political stakeholders and the nation about the absolute professionalism and what we call aggressive brutality throughout this period to ensure the security and integrity of the state,” Captain Budu Koomson noted.

The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) says it plans to deploy as many as 4000 non-partisan monitors to undertake election-related violence monitoring in 40 constituencies nationwide.

This forms part of the Centre’s overall civil society election support program for the 2012 elections.