The Police Administration has urged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to concentrate on their political activities and give the law enforcement agency the space to executive its mandate.
Noting that policing interventions were put in place to address their concerns, the Police Service said it needed the support of the parties, including constructive criticism, in order to do professional work in line with its constitutional obligation.
The call is in a statement, issued by Director of Public Affairs, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Grace Ansah-Akrofi, after a meeting between the Police Administration and leadership of the NPP and NDC, in Accra, on Monday.
The meeting, which was called at the instance of the Inspector-General of Police,Dr George Akuffo Dampare,was necessitated by press statements issued by the parties and subsequent petitions to the Police Service, calling on the police to arrest certain individuals of the two parties for alleged offences.
The NPP asked the Police Service to arrest former President John Dramani Mahama for offensive conduct, including inciting supporters to violence, while the NDC called for the arrest of the newly appointed Minister of Food and Agriculture,Mr Bryan Acheampong, for alleged treasonable action.
The statement, said at the meeting, both parties were given the opportunity to air their grievances while the police briefed them on two strategic interventions introduced by the Police Administration, to handle election and politically-related incidents as part of the Police transformation agenda.
It said the first strategic intervention was the establishment of the Police Election Security Secretariat to work with all political parties and other stakeholders, to enhance the management of security for all elections, instead of the use of election security task force.
Since its creation over a year ago, the statement said the Secretariat had worked with the various political parties in their respective internal elections while it was currently working with them on their parliamentary and presidential primaries.
The second intervention, it said, was the setting up of a dedicated legal team to subject all politically related incidents to legal scrutiny to establish elements of crime or otherwise before any Police action is taken.
“The Police will, therefore, not intervene in any situation where there is no criminality involved,”the statement said.
It said this initiative had been used to analyse all recent cases such as comments made by the Minister of Food and Agriculture and the NDC Suame Constituency Youth Organiser.
The statement said the police used the opportunity to provide an update on the status of political violence and related incidents recorded during the recent internal elections of NPP and NDC.
It mentioned the arrest and prosecution of 14 members of the NPP for disturbances during party constituency election at Enchi, and the arrest ofnineout of the 16 persons wanted for disturbances at the National Youth and Women Organiser polls of the NDC,in Cape Coast.
The police said light was shed on the status of the 2020 General Election-related cases, including Techiman South and Odododiodio constituencies and the public would be duly updated on these cases in the course of the week.
The statement called on Ghanaians to help build an independent Police Service, assuring the public of its commitment to ensuring peace, security, law and order in the country at all times.
BY TIMES REPORTER
