Military and Police Commands Fume Over Clashes Between Personnel

By Times Reporter

The Military and Police commands have cautioned their personnel to desist from actions that tend to undermine the authority of each other while performing their official duties.

The commands said clashes between their personnel were unprofessional and could undermine the security of the country, the safety of the personnel themselves and that of the public.

The caution was one of guidelines to curb the recent clashes between the personnel, agreed upon by the two commands, at a crunch meeting at the Military Headquarters, Burma Camp in Accra on April 24, 2018.

A letter outlining the guidelines, dated April 26, 2018, signed by Rear Admiral M. Beick-Baffour, and sighted by the Ghanaian Times said the two commands were unhappy with the situation.

The meeting, according to the letter, was held at the instance of the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Obed B. Akwa and the Inspector General of Police, David Asante-Appeatu.

The commands agreed to condemn and advise their personnel to stop the "counterproductive practice" of circulating inflammatory write-ups on social media and urge the media to be circumspect in reporting such incidences in order not to aggravate the situation.

It was also agreed that they would maintain the existing cordial relationship between the two institutions as well as avoid acts of disunity that tend to serve the interest of criminals.

Additionally, they agreed to "promptly take action by investigating and instituting sanctions against their personnel whose behaviour undermine good conduct, mutual respect for each other, adherence to law and order as dictated by professional code of conduct for both the military and police".

It was agreed that actions taken against personnel of both institutions are to be promptly communicated to both police and military authorities while the authorities were to foster deeper understanding of roles and operations of both institutions.

"Existing guidelines on the conduct of both Military and the Police, especially at traffic check points and other operations (are) to be circulated among the rank and file of the Police and the Military," it said.

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