Bureau of Public Safety condemns recruitment of members of vigilante groups into National Security

The Bureau of Public Safety has condemned the recruitment of known members of alleged disbanded vigilante groups into the National Security as it notes that it is dangerous for the country.

The Bureau’s statement comes after it was reported that some known members of the disbanded Delta Force vigilante group had been recruited into the National Security, subsequently causing mayhem in the Ashanti region.

The Executive Director of the Bureau of Public Safety, Nana Yaw Akwada noted that if it was really the case that these persons have been recruited into the National Security architecture, then they must be quickly removed.

In an interview with Samuel Eshun on e.TV Ghana’s ‘Fact Sheet’ show, he expressed: “Elsewhere in the States, if you even have a traffic violation on your record, you have no place in the public safety department. And here in Ghana, we are even comfortable talking about it. For people who have applied themselves to acts of vigilantism, we are proud to say that we have recruited them into the national security ministry? A ministry that has literally overt powers. It should never be. What sort of screening have we done to recruit such thugs into the national security architecture? It is dangerous. Something that as a country we should not entertain and we must frown on it and if it is true that members who are on a file known as vigilantes who once upon a time gave all of us headache in this country have been recruited into the national security architecture, we must expunge them fast. It is dangerous”.

Nana Yaw Akwada noted that usually, the recruitment of National Security operatives and the training provided them accounts for the lack of professionalism and the threatening language they use when dealing with the citizens.

“If you find yourself in the UK or America you will find a police officer literally wooing you and begging you and before you know, you are at the counter back but in our country, it is not like that because of their training and recruitment”, he added.

A group of persons suspected to be part of the disbanded pro-NPP vigilante group, Delta Force, were reported to have been arrested for allegedly attempting to forcibly remove the Regional Security Coordinator, DCOP retired Ayensu Opare Addo from his office on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.

Reports further indicated that Police personnel from the Ashanti Regional Police Command, led by the Deputy Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP David Agyemang Adjem, subsequently arrested the said members of the group.