Cops pay ultimate price in line of duty

Fifty-six police personnel were killed in the line of duty from 2000 to 2012, the Police Administration has said. Twelve out of the number were shot by armed robbers.
They included two constables, Yaw Owusu Frimpong and Prince Agyare, who were attacked and shot at Nakpanduri in the Northern Region by the notorious Johnson Conbian on October 10, 2010.

The list also showed that eight police personnel were knocked down by cars while directing traffic or at a check point.

Five were murdered in Tamale, Anloga and Adabraka between 2007 and 2008, while five others were killed in a motor accident involving a presidential convoy at Chiraa in the Brong Ahafo Region on November 26, 2006.

All the deceased were males and of junior ranks.

Other factors

Road accidents and gunshot wounds were other factors which led to the death of some of the police personnel.

The year 2000 recorded the highest number of six deaths, while 2011 and 2012 recorded the least of three deaths.

Risks

The Head of the Police Public Relations Directorate, DSP Cephas Arthur, told the Daily Graphic that police officers went through dangerous and unexpected situations to discharge their duties.

“Police personnel are vulnerable. Our job is very risky and we suffer casualties while providing protection for the public or maintaining order,” he said.

He also stressed that the best way to prevent or reduce the casualties was through the provision of adequate and appropriate logistics and equipment.

He said it was encouraging, therefore, that unlike previously when the police service was handicapped, “we are now quite adequately resourced in terms of logistics and equipment,” adding that “police personnel go for operations adequately protected and have accoutrements such as helmets, shields, batons, and in the case of riot control, they wear full riot gear.”

Training

DSP Arthur said the Police Administration was consistently organising training programmes for its personnel to upgrade their skills to enable them to discharge their duties more professionally “and we are sure that with the training, they would be more professional and through that we will be able to reduce the risks associated with our work.”

He added that the safety of personnel was of paramount concern, “since a dead man cannot protect the living.”  He urged the citizenry to respect and cooperate with the police in the discharge of their duties of maintaining peace and order in the country.

According to data made available to the Daily Graphic, close to 60 police personnel died in the course of discharging their duty in the last decade.

Though statistics on the number of police personnel who were injured in the course of their operations was not made available, there have been reports in recent times of police personnel suffering injuries while on the job, which seem to suggest that the figure has inched up.

The story of 34-year-old Lance Corporal Samuel Agbogla, who lost his left leg while providing security to passengers on a bus from Kumasi to Sunyani last year, comes in handy.

Lance Corporal Agbogla had been assigned to provide safety on the Yutong bus because of the many incidents of armed-robbery attacks on passengers who travelled on the roads at dawn and in the night in some parts of the country.

The policeman was compelled to sit at the entrance to the bus because the driver of the Yutong bus would not offer him a seat, which would have meant losing the transport fare of one passenger.

Unfortunately, the bus was involved in an accident along the way and that led to the amputation of Lance Corporal Agbogla’s left leg.

At the recently-held West African Security Services Association (WASSA) get-together, organised at the Police Headquarters in Accra, Lance Corporal Agbogla hobbled with the aid of a walking stick, to receive an award.

By Emelia Enin Abbey/Daily Graphic/Ghana