Enough of the celebrity display – Dampare advised

Communications team member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kwaku Boateng, has alluded that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, is relishing his position as that of a celebrity figure.

The IGP has been in the news for numerous reasons including the recent “banter” with the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson over the ‘Fix The Convener’, Oliver Barker-Vormawor’s multiple arrests.

IGP Dampare’s latest outdoor was a visit to Kumasi to have a first-hand assessment of an alleged Police attack on Islamic Senior High School students during a protest. About 25 students of the Islamic Senior High School were hospitalized after Police allegedly opened tear gas on them while they were protesting frequent crashes of pedestrians in front of the school.

However, Kwaku Boateng of the NDC believes the IGP’s visit to the region was an outright overplay of his role as the IGP. According to him, it would have been best to share the responsibility with the Regional Commander of the Ashanti Region.

“Our IGP needs to delegate his work as the head of our internal security force. The celebrity lifestyle is enough for his position. We surely have Regional Director in Kumasi so can’t he delegate such responsibilities to him? Rumors are spreading that he wants to become a Vice President with a certain Political party but I just want to believe this as just ordinary speculations. The PR gimmicks are becoming a nuisance and surprising there’s a PR unit in every region,” he said.

He further condemned the speculations that some students of the Islamic SHS were armed during their protest.

“As humans as we are, demonstrations are very logical and need a significant feature of our democracy as a society. It’s everyone’s prerogative to go on demonstrations and we ought to congratulate them for such bold steps at that young age. However, inappropriate acts and weapons involved in demonstrations would be condemned,” he added.