Member of Parliament for Builsa North Constituency in the Upper East Region and Ranking member of Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Interior, James Agalga has condemned the Inspector General of Police, James Oppong-Boanuh for saying that “we are not in heaven”.
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh has stated that, despite the alarming rate of insecurity in the country, citizens should be modest in their expectations from the police. According to him, several developed countries including the United States of America and United Kingdom are still battling with cases of robbery. Therefore, the recent spate of crime in the country, however alarming, is not only peculiar to Ghana. The only place that doesn’t have crime is heaven and we are not in heaven.
Commenting on the issue on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East show, Mr. Agalga said the IGP should address the spate of crime in the country rather than making such comments.
He said, the IGP’s statement at a time when his officer has been killed as a result of the negligence of the police administration in enforcing its own rules and regulations was not an opportune time for the IGP to be making such comments.
Mr. Agalga said, “it is a fact, no country has a crime-free society, it’s a fact but you see the context on which the IGP spoke, is what creates the problem. At the moment we are confronted with an upset of armed robbery, numerous attacks and killings of Police officers, so the IGP’s comment should have been a little bit more circumspect and not related to other countries that are doing better than us and still have crime. He spoke as though there is nothing wrong with the current state of crime.”
He further said, he was not enthused at all about the state of crime in our country and the IGP ought to have concentrated in addressing the spate of crime in the country rather than saying that it’s in heaven that we don’t have crime.
The IGP’S comment has attracted a lot reactions from the public including a security analyst, Adam Bonaa who called on IGP to resign due to his inability to bring an end to the rise in daylight robbery in the country.
Source: A1Radioonline.com/ 101.1MHz/ Samuel Adagom/ Ghana
