Recruitment scam ; Police Council endorses taskforce’s recommendations

The Police Council has directed that all police officers investigated in the recent police recruitment scam should remain on interdiction.

The council, which is chaired by the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, after a meeting yesterday to consider the report on the investigations into the recent police recruitment fraud, endorsed the recommendations of the committee.

A press statement released after the meeting stated that the docket of the case was to be processed and forwarded to the Attorney-General’s office for legal directive “as a matter of urgency”.

 “Internal disciplinary action should be initiated into the conduct of the officers, and that this is without prejudice to any criminal prosecutions that may be directed by the Attorney-General’s Office against them,” it said.

The task force, according to the statement, also recommended that the Police Administration should take measures to educate the public on police recruitment processes as to avoid a reccurrence of that incident.

“We, therefore, urge the general public and our stakeholders to continue to give us their support in this regard,” said the statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Police Service, Superintendent of Police,  Cephas Arthur.

Background 

On February 28, 2015, reports said that hundreds of young men and women had turned up at five police training depots for enlistment into the Ghana Police Service but left disappointed after they found out it was a scam.

 It was found out that their recruitment letters, which had the signature of Commissioner of Police (COP), Mr Patrick Timbilla, were fake and that the purported enlistment was a fraud.

The victims of the scam, who had gone to the Kumasi, Koforidua, Pwalugu, Accra and Ho Police depots with their luggage to begin the training claimed they had paid between GH¢2,000 and GH¢3,500 to the alleged fraudsters.

The Police Administration set up a Special Investigations Taskforce headed by DCOP Bright Oduro to look into the scam.

The SIT was endorsed by the Police Council

Persons involved 

The taskforce investigated 14 people including three police officers and 11 civilians.

The three police officers included the Director General of the Human Resource Department of the Ghana Police Service, Mr  Timbilla.

Mr Timbilla was interdicted immediately he was mentioned by some of the suspects arrested in connection with the recruitment scam.

The other two police officers were General Corporal Gideon Sarpong of the Visibility Unit, Takoradi, and Constable Ruth Agyiri, 27, Central Police Station, Koforidua.

Two suspects - Aisha Asumda, alias Aisha Boku Masi, a 36-year-old shea butter seller, suspected to have played a key role in the scam, and her accomplice, Alifa Adams, -were arrested at Tesano and Adenta respectively following a tip-off.

The other civilians included Amos Brown, Pastor Paul Danso and Richard Harrison. 

The kingpin in the case, Alifa Adams, on whose head the Police Administration placed a GH¢5000 bounty after he jumped bail, surrendered to the police last week.