Deputy Commissioner of Police, Prince Gabriel Waabu, has assured Ghanaians of the Ghana Police Service’s absolute commitment to ensuring that the upcoming 2024 elections are conducted in a peaceful and incident-free manner.
DCOP Waabu emphasised that the Ghana Police Service has implemented various structures and strategies to guarantee the safety and security of citizens during the electoral process.
“We have all the implements that we would be able to pick you up. We would not even need to chase you. All the police you will be seeing will have body cameras. They are there, it is been looked at our main base so whatever is going on during the election would be monitored and captured live,” he said on Joy News.
The measures include extensive sensitisation programmes and collaborative efforts with other relevant agencies to address any potential challenges that may arise.
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He further mentioned the ongoing training initiatives within the police force, noting that over 300 recruits are currently undergoing training and are expected to graduate from the training school soon. This influx of newly trained personnel will greatly bolster the capacity of the police force to effectively handle any security concerns during the elections.
Ghana’s elections have been acclaimed to be generally peaceful. However, pockets of violence have been witnessed in past elections that have led to the loss of lives and properties. An example of such an incident is the shooting of agents and party members in the Ayawaso West By-election in 2019 when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had to withdraw its agents.
The 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections also experienced violence where about eight lives including minors were lost according to reports.
Perhaps this assurance from the Police Service is the remedy that would end electoral violence in Ghana.
