CID needs its own detention centre – Amnesty International

Country Director for Amnesty International Robert Amoafo has raised concerns over the fact that the CID relies on the BNI for the detention of suspects.

Sharing his concerns over the issue on the Alert show with Adam Bona Tuesday, Mr Amoako said “my first impression is that it’s quite deplorable. It’s very sad that we get to know of such a thing especially when we are aware that the CID seems to be the engine room of everything. So if first of all those people do not have certain amenities that will help us address crime, then there’s a big situation that we need to look at.”

“And for me as human rights person, my take is that how do we ensure that we are protecting the rights of people who are arrested if these people do not have good detention centres that will keep innocent people until proven guilty,” he quizzed.

Mr Amoako added “It’s terrible because like I’m mentioning, an individual who is arrested and is put in the charge of the CID means that that person is under investigation at the moment. That means that at that point in time the person is still innocent. So you can’t mix the person with other people and expect that the person will be protected as expected.”

“So for me it’s very deplorable and I support your {Adam Bona} point that we expect that as the year ends and as we are going to read the budget tomorrow, if they are listening to us, we are employing them to look at the security sector and look at the situation of the CID and put in something at least to put something in place and we will be very happy on that,” he added.

Also, a Security analyst and host of Alert Adam Bona added his voice to the situation, describing it as a disgrace to the nation.

He said “as we speak, till date, the CID don’t have their own detention centre and I think it’s a disgrace to the entire nation, it is a disgrace to the security architecture on this country. As a matter of urgency ill call on his Excellency the Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana who is the chairman of the police council.

“I’ll call on the interior minister, I’ll call on the National Security Council chaired by his excellency the president of the Republic of Ghana to as a matter of urgency put in place a budgetary allocation for the police CID to have multipurpose detention centre,” he charged.