Islamic SHS saga: IGP making policing ‘attractive’, his response to issues ‘matchless’ – Majority Leader

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu says the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare needs all the assistance and commendation for his “excellent” leadership as the head of the Ghana Police Service.

He said the security capo is changing the narrative about Ghana police and making it more “attractive” in recent times.

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s commendation comes after the IGP’s swift responses to the Islamic SHS shooting.

“How Dr George Akuffo Dampare (IGP) moved from Accra to Kumasi to solve issues was amazing. He is indeed a leader who needs all the support in his line of work. He is doing marvellously well,” he said in an interview with NEAT FM’s morning show, Ghana Montie.

Students demo

Some students of the Islamic Senior High School in Kumasi protested against pedestrian knockdowns involving students and teachers of the school.

But their demonstration was met by police brutality with viral video footage showing Police personnel opening up tear gas on students to disperse the crowd.

Over 25 students were rushed to the hospital following an alleged clash with the Police.

Conduct of Police

The Ghana Police Service, in a statement later on Monday, admitted that its men deployed to the Senior High School could have adopted a better approach to tackling the chaos on Monday morning.

In a Police statement condemning the violence on the protesting students, the Director of Public Affairs, Chief Superintendent Grace Ansah-Akrofi, established that even though nobody was hit by a live bullet, "the Police handling of the incident was poor and fell short of our standard operating procedure on crowd control."

The Ghana Police Service subsequently removed from office the Deputy Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kwasi Akomeah-Apraku, who was acting as the Regional Police Commander at the time of the chaos.

Some top Police officers in the jurisdiction have also been interdicted, including the Regional Operations Officer of the Ghana Police, ACP/Mr. George Ankomah, and ACP/Mr. Alex Cudjoe Acquah, the Suame Divisional Police Commander.

This was after the IGP, Dr George Akuffo Dampare had visited the school and meeting with the regional police commander to get fight-hand information.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu who is also a lawmaker for Suame in Kumasi said even though the students were wrong, “the action of the police personnel was unacceptable.”