Police commended for response to Islamic school incident

The National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCSALW) and the National Peace Council (NPC) have commended the Ghana Police Service for their swift action in the recent Islamic Senior High School (SHS) incident.

Their commendation comes off the back of the sanctioning of senior police officers for breach of Police procedures and instituting further investigations into the Islamic SHS demonstration against the frequent knockdown of students and staff at the entrance of the school.

This was cited in a joint press release issued yesterday by the NCSALW and the NPC.

In the release, it urged the Police to speed up with investigations into the matter and inform the general public of the outcome and the sanctions meted out to officers found to have misconducted themselves.

The two institutions lauded the authorities of the Senior High School, parents of the affected students, government officials, civil society organisations and the media for their various roles played to help bring the situation under control.

It advised Ghanaians to refrain from making statements and comments that would inflame passions and incite people to resort to the use of violence to address their grievances.

However, in a statement released by the Ghana Police Service last Monday, it indicated that the Deputy Ashanti Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Kwasi Akomeah-Apraku had been removed from his position and two other senior police officers, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) George Ankomah, the Regional Operations Commander and ACP Alex Cudjoe, the Suame Divisional Police Commander have been interdicted for the poor handling of the incident which, according to the police, they fell short of the standard operating procedures on crowd control.

BY ANITA ANKRAH