Election 2020: IGP did nothing wrong – Seth Acheampong

Chairman of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Seth Acheampong has described as pointless, the minority’s demand for the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to resign or be kicked out from the office.

He says the conduct of the police service under the stewardship of the IGP during the just-ended election was within standard security procedures thus calls for his dismissal are unfounded.

The Minority in Parliament is calling for the immediate dismissal of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), James Oppong Boanuh, for not ensuring the safety of Ghanaians during the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

But reacting to this on Eyewitness News, Mr. Acheampong rejected the Minority’s call saying, the only responsible thing is for the committee to invite the IGP to provide updates on the post-election activities to see how such matters will be handled – a decision his outfit has already made.

“I would like to congratulate the police service for ensuring we had a very peaceful exercise. We witnessed some occurrences, but I will not fault the IGP for this. The IGP took responsibility and charge of the election situation. He ran it thoroughly and through; unfortunately, some areas suffered some misunderstanding, but I will work with a responsible IGP to unravel all the challenges so let’s not throw away the ba with the bad bathwater. Some citizens took the law into their own hands and are unfortunately struggling in this manner. It is not the fault of the IGP”, he noted.

The Defence and Interior Committee further criticized the Minority for failing to come to terms with reality and deliberating on picking on the IGP for no substantial reason.

“People have deliberately taken advantage of the issues that emerged out of this last general election and cashing in on them as if that is all that occurred on the 7th of December. I speak against and condemn any untoward action but that is not the only incident and action that occurred on the very day we exercised our franchise, and so I will not square that concern as the primary issue that some are seeking to do. It is not proper, it is not the way to way and this is not how our history teaches us.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Acheampong wants the IGP to be commended for putting his best foot forward in his handling of the unfortunate happenings that marred the December 7 polls.

He maintained that the IGP cannot in any way be blamed for many of the incidents since it is not uncharacteristic of electioneering periods, adding that the IGP can at this material moment help the situation offering answers to what happened and the way forward.

“This is trite knowledge, every general election -the national election security taskforce is in check the sitting IGP so this current IGP did nothing wrong because he chaired a very decent and successful exercise – the first of its kind that we have had enough support. I believe we can have redress to whatever has happened, so I don’t think anyone can go after the IGP as a person for taking any action that is untoward. He is such a character who we can’t say he can’t be faulted but in this circumstance, he has the ultimate responsibility to offer us some answers to what has happened, but he is not the person to take on.”

—citinewsroom