Welfare of Police officers in Ghana not encouraging – Toobu

Member of Parliament (MP) for Wa West, Sup. RTD Peter Lanchene Toobu, has bemoaned the recent spate of insecurity in the country.

He blames the inefficiency of the Ghana Police to clamp down on criminals in recent times on the dwindling morale among police officials in the country.

The former executive secretary for the former IGP, David Asante Appeatu, was reacting to the killing of a police constable by some armed robbers who attacked a bullion van on Monday when he noted that remuneration for cops in the country was bad.

Recounting some of the frustrations police personnel, Mr Toobu said the government has halted the payment of pension benefits for cops who voluntarily retire, including himself.

He spoke to Mugabe Maase on the Gumbe Show on TV XYZ last night that the development began when the Akufo-Addo government took over in 2017.

“From 2017, this government has decided it will not pay pension for anyone in the police service that goes on voluntary pension. As I speak, some of my colleagues are in court fighting the government,” he told Mugabe.

He said the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh, is aware of the bad situation but has done little to reverse the policy.

“All these are some of the frustrations police officers are subjected to…I went to stay at home after I had voluntarily retired for 2 months – May and June and nobody cared about me. I started pension on 1st May 2019, and I did not take any pension benefit monthly,” he lamented and asked for persons whose relatives are in the police service to begin to pray for them.

The MP who served in the Police Service for 25 years indicated that the current government hardly makes any effort to protect the lives of cops in the country, stressing it is the reason crime rate is going up.