Election 2020: Peter Toobu advocates for public filming of police actions at polls

The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Spokesperson on Security, Superintendent Peter Lanchene Toobu has supported the need for citizens to film the police actions at the polls in December.

According to him, this will ensure accountability of the police whether professional or unprofessional.

Speaking to Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he stated: “I have personally promoted public filming of any professional activity of a police officer because that professionalism should be acknowledged in due course. And if the person becomes unprofessional that unprofessionalism must also be handled differently”.

Per his view, disallowing citizens from filming police actions at the polls is a “suppressive” action which undermines Ghana’s democracy.

“In an era of technology, if you tell people that they can’t film, I have my phone, I have the right to film. I don’t know what law in Ghana prevents that. I think that nobody should attempt going that way. If you do that I think that you are suppressing some individual interest and that suppressive thing is not democratic. We should allow it.

What are you afraid of? If you are a police officer and you go out there to perform a duty, you are guided by rules and regulations and your practices must be in line with policies. So if you are doing it without fear or favour, you have nothing to lose”.

He reiterated his stance when he said, “I promote it and I am promoting it in my constituency. It is not for anything. It is just for the records”

The Ghana Police Service has disclosed that a total of 62,794 security personnel have been deployed to ensure the security and safety of Ghanaians during the December polls.