Security analyst Professor Kwesi Aning has recommended harsh punishment for senior police officer COP George Alex Mensah for passing disparaging remarks about the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Ghana Police Service.
COP Mensah, together with Emmanuel Eric Gyebi and George Lysander Asare, both Superintendents, were captured in a conversation ostensibly plotting to remove the current IGP, George Akuffo Dampare, before the 2024 general elections.
COP Mensah, a former Director of Operations of the Ghana Police Service, was invited before a committee constituted by parliament to probe the matter.
He did not hold back as he made several claims about the Ghana Police Service.
He said that Dr. George Akuffo Dampare was the worst IGP because he has gagged police officers and doesn’t accept criticisms.
COP Mensah also alleged that the IGP had political affiliations with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
COP Mensah said he was a sympathiser of the NPP, and so he wanted the IGP position to help the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) win the 2024 elections.
He revealed that the police service was divided into NDC and NPP, and officers got promotions based on political affiliation.
The three senior officers have been interdicted, pending investigations.
Commenting on the development, Professor Kwesi Aning, the Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), said it had taken “too long for these people to be disciplined”.
He pointed out that “such baseless accusations threaten national security”.
Professor Aning explained that there are established rules and procedures for grievances in a frontline national security institution, such as the Ghana police, adding it was wrong to settle personal scores in public.
“The primary role of the Ghana Police Service is to protect lives and property, and after 35 years or so, you turn around, and you tend to undermine the sanctity of that institution. I think that person should be punished,” he stressed.
“The kinds of statements that have come out are not statements that sort to inure to the benefit of the Ghana Police Service as a whole. It is a personal targeted attack against an IGP. And they haven’t provided any solid evidence. When you live in a dangerous geographical area like we do and a senior police officer, albeit one who is going on pension but still a serving officer, misconducts himself to such an extent, then the most stringent disciplinary rules within that institution must be applied,” he reiterated in an interview on Joy News on Thursday, September 7.
You are quick to recommend hard punishment for COP Mensah. You were in this country when coup plotters who killed many civilians and judges with impunity
metamorphosed into politicians. Did you recommend harsher punishment for them? Mr Anning you are a very hypocritical person. Is the IGP beyond criticism? Sentence COP Mensah to life imprisonment then. In a democratic society no one is beyond criticism. You are in Ghana when people criticised the president unfairly. Have you recommend death Sentence for them? You are jealous of what COP Mensah has achieved in public service. Go in your a secret place to atone for your sins rather being holier than thou posture. What punishment will you then recommend to Bugri Naabu and his cohorts who tapped innocent officers invited to his office?