Savannah Regional Minister and Chairman of the Regional Security Council Saeed Muhazu Jibril has vowed to prevent all officers designated in his region from taking government vehicles to their private residences.
The minister who bemoaned the current issue of snatched cars belonging to the state within his jurisdiction said the move will create an avenue to monitor government vehicles.
The Regional Ministers’ comment follows the snatching of the official vehicle used by the Director of the Fisheries Commission in the Savannah Region on Sunday, August 6 by two armed robbers at gunpoint in Tamale.
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Saeed in an interview indicated that monitoring of properties belonging to the state in the Savannah region is often a challenge due to the location of the offices.
‘The reason why it is very difficult to monitor most of the vehicles is that the Directorate Head Offices are scattered across the regional capital. For instance, we have the Agric Directorate in the Bole District, you take the Education Directorate too for instance, it is located in the West Gonja District, the Feeder Roads Department is in Salaga and the Fisheries Directorate is located in Buipe in the Central Gonja”, he noted in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Joy.
He added that “In 2019, a similar case happened as a minister’s vehicle was snatched in the same region. The first case is in court now. This one has just happened and the police are working seriously to find out what really happened and why such cases continue to happen in such a small region”.
The regional minister speaking on the measures to curb the situation said officers within his jurisdiction will no longer be permitted to take their vehicles to their private residences but would have to park them on office premises.
“So for us to be able to monitor the movement of government vehicles over the weekend is very difficult. What I am doing now is that next week Tuesday I will call all the heads of department and agency to meetings and sound caution to them that no officer should take his or her vehicle to their official residence. All the cars should be parked at their offices”.
“This case happened over the weekend and if this minister parked the vehicle at the office premises this wouldn’t have happened”.
“Any officer who fails to take into consideration the decision that will be taken on Tuesday means if something similar happens to that person, you have to face the law” he added.