Trouble In Police

- IGP Powerless

Published in Daily Guide on October 9, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

 

IGP Paul Tawiah Quaye

Confusion has engulfed the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Command following the return of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Robert Ayalingo to his post after he was served with his retirement correspondence.
His return has sparked disquiet in the command structure, with officers grumbling over the confusion, a situation which is threatening morale.
The man who took over from Ayalingo, his former second-in-command, DCOP Isaac Alex Quainoo, would not leave his newfound position because he has not been informed to do so officially; therefore the two could be on an open collision course if the authorities do not intervene.
Information reaching DAILY GUIDE suggests that President John Mahama authorised the extension of service for Robert Ayalingo as part of an election 2012 strategy under which some retired superior officers would be retained.
The Chief Constable, Inspector General Police, Paul Tawiah Quaye, is said to be unaware of the contract to DCOP Ayalingo, with the correspondence covering it emanating from the Interior Ministry.
The IGP is said to have thrown his hands in despair over the unnecessary executive intervention in the Police Administration.
DCOP Ayalingo claimed he was in a meeting when DAILY GUIDE contacted him around 3:15pm with a promise to call back.
At the time of going to press, he had still not called to enable the paper to clear issues with him.
Commissioner of Police Hamidu Mahama of the Police Headquarters and other senior police officers were in the same messy situation in order to do the bidding of the NDC, sources said.
Mr Hamidu was the officer who granted bail to some drug dealers in Takoradi when he was the Western Regional Police Commander, when Araba Tagoe, Western regional NDC women’s organizer, intervened.
Under the provisions of Police Service regulations, retired officers- even when they are offered the privilege of contract under police convention- should not don uniform and should be one rank down.
Under the present disposition, the convention has been breached as Hamidu Mahama is donning the uniform and maintaining his COP rank, raising lots of questions about the ability of the Ghana Police Service as a law enforcement agency to hold their own in check and uphold the law.

Konadu For President

Published in Daily Guide on October 9, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

 

Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings

Former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings has finally taken up the challenge to contest the flagbearership position of the newly formed National Democratic Party (NDP).
The interim general secretary of the National Democratic Congress’s breakaway party, Dr Joseph Mamboa-Rockson, who confirmed the information said, “Yes! The former First Lady is one of them; we are still waiting for her to come up at the congress as the flagbearer.”
She is expected to resign from the ruling NDC, a party founded by her husband and former President Jerry John Rawlings.
Nana Konadu, a former vice chairperson of the NDC, contested the flagbearership slot of the ruling party with the late President John Evans Atta Mills, but lost at the party’s congress at Sunyani last year.
Apart from Mrs. Rawlings, two other persons are also said to have expressed interest in the position.
But speaking on Accra-based Joy FM, Dr Mamboa-Rockson said, “The three of them are currently and I believe that they are talking in terms of merging up and getting us a formidable person.”
He, however, declined to disclose the name of the two other persons in contention for the flagbearership position of the NDP but indicated that “now that she (Nana Konadu) has shown the interest, we believe that a consensus would be reached among the three so that Mrs. Rawlings becomes the flagbearer and then we get the running mate.”
The party expects no less than 7,500 members and 2,500 delegates to converge on the Kumasi Sports Stadium on Saturday, October 13, when it goes to congress to elect a flagbearer and substantive national executives.
Unlike other congresses that elect executives, the NDP scribe said, “We are going in there for the national executives and then we can also endorse our flagbearer.”
He could neither confirm nor deny whether former President Rawlings would be at the event but expressed hope that the ‘old man’ would make time to grace the occasion.
“You remember that I was always saying that the Rawlingses are behind us; now we’ve got one out of the …let’s hope that the other one follows,” he noted.
Nana Konadu is said to have picked up forms to contest the flagbearership position.
She was said to have bought her forms on Monday afternoon and expressed her willingness to keenly contest.
The deputy communications director for the NDP, Ernest Owusu-Bempah, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, was optimistic that Mrs. Rawlings would accept the call on her by the rank and file of the party and accept the challenge to lead the party into the 2012 elections.