At least 800 police officers will be deployed to enhance the security of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the coming years.
This is according to Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery.
Following the gruesome killing of the Mfantseman MP, Ekow Hayford in a robbery attack, the government has deployed 200 police officers to serve as guards to MPs till the end of the year.
The officers will operate under the Parliamentary Protection Unit.
Speaking to the media, Ambrose Dery indicated that the additional number of police personnel will provide security for MPs at their residence.
“Subsequently, to get to where we want to get to means that, we should have 800 police added so that each MP will also have security at home in the day and night,” he said. Judges have that, Ministers have that. Indeed, the leadership of Parliament has that. Thanks to the retooling we did, we got adequate police personnel to deal with the 200, but we have to move it further”, the Minister said.
The officers will operate under the Parliamentary Protection Unit.
Under the new arrangement, every MP will be entitled to a police officer as a bodyguard.
Police protection for MPs will compromise public security – Bureau of Public Safety
The Bureau of Public Safety says the decision to provide Members of Parliament with armed police guard will compromise the security of the masses.
The Bureau says the decision will shift the attention of the country’s security services from the masses to a few privileged Ghanaians.
Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada, in a Citi News interview, said Ghanaians have been short-changed by that decision.
“The commitment he has made actually reduces national security which aims at providing security for the general population on offer to politicians and men of power. By so doing he has left the security of the ordinary Ghanaian to his vulnerable state. This is appalling, offensive, indecent. This single decision sends a wrong signal to the many lives which have been lost in a similar fashion”, he said.
