Criminal gangs within the Police a national security threat – Dr Norman

Norman says a commission of inquiry needs to investigate Police

It is had to believe that only the two key suspects were killed - Norman

Level of transparency within the Police commendable - Security analyst


President of the Institute of Security Disaster and Emergency Studies, Dr. Ishmael Norman, has said that criminal gangs within the

Read full articletarget='_blank' href='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=3226'>Ghana Police Service are a national security threat.

He said considering that only the two bullion van police suspects got killed as they were leading the Police to a criminal gang raises questions that go beyond the Ghana Police Service.

In an interview on JoyNews PM Express monitored by GhanaWeb, Dr Norman, therefore, called for an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killing of the two key suspects in the ongoing bullion van robbery investigation.

“…it was incredulous, to say the least, that the two essential people got killed, nobody else got killed. Where do we go from here? The questions that flow from there are: what did they know, and who did they know information about that was damning to those people?"

“If they were killed; if they were murdered, who gave the order? We need to have a commission of inquiry. Not only about the killing of the two suspects, but we also need to have a commission of inquiry to dig into criminal cells within the police force,” he said.

“I will like to know the money that was taken from all the banks and who got what and how much? Because there are too many unanswered questions and until the evidence is made very clear, the Ghana Police is going to have a much bigger image problem to manage,” he added.

According to the security analyst, a special commission with an in-camera interrogation will lead to the eradication of the suspected bullion van criminal gang and other cells within the Police.

He added that the probe would help achieve the Inspector General of Police George Akuffo Dampare’s objective of eradicating crime in the country.

“… Dr Dampare has always said he’s going to rid Ghana of criminals, and the way he talks, it’s as if the problem is not within the Police, it is the civilians who are enemies of the state, and now we realize that the true enemies of the state are the policemen themselves. Not all of them. So we need to see how deep the corruption in the Police is and who are the principles which stand to benefit and so on,” he said.

Dr Norman also commended the Police for the level of transparency, saying that Police under the leadership of Dr Dampare are doing well with the updates to the public because, in the past, such issues were never available for the consumption of the public.