Some residents in the Bono East region, especially Techiman, Nkoranza, Kintampo, Yeji, Prang and Atebubu are worried about the activities of police personnel in the area working under the Police Intelligent Directorate (PID) of the Ghana Police Service.

IGP Dr.Akuffo Dampare

The PID, according to Police sources, has been in existence for quite a long time but used to be in only Accra and Kumasi. PID offices have however, been opened in all regional commands of the Ghana Police Services since the current Inspector-General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare took office in 2021.

These personnel, whose operations in the Bono East region are under the command of a police Chief Superintendent(name withheld) has been accused for conducting arbitrary searches in people’s homes, arrest people and seize properties without any court order and most often subject their preys to all kinds of inhumane treatments, including severe beatings and sometimes open fire at them.

When some Journalists visited Techiman, the Bono East regional capital, it was observed that these personnel claim they take their instructions and report directly to the Inspector-General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, and can therefore act without the prior knowledge of the Regional, Divisional or District Command of the Police Service.
Residents are therefore calling on the Ministry of Interior and the Presidency to intervene and call these PID personnel to order as their activities keep threatening the peace and security of the region.

The residents, who spoke on conditions of anonymity for fear of being targeted for any possible fallout from the interview, cited several instances where these personnel have raided people’s homes, mostly at odd hours, and picked up innocent residents, flogged them; all in the name of carrying out investigations.

“When these PID guys arrest someone, they sometimes take him to residence of a senior Police Officer (name withheld) and subject the person to all kinds of inhumane treatment for days without any trial and more or less kidnap him. If the family of the victim hears about it and trace their relative’s whereabout and gets to the said officer’s house, they would be made to pay a huge sum of money before the so-called suspect is released. This has been going on for some time now”, a resident confided in our reporter.

Rambo-style arrests:

Another resident narrated how these personnel, who are usually not in any uniform, picked-up a young man in Techiman on suspicion that he owns a gun in his house and bundled him into a waiting pick-up vehicle with registration number GN 3780-21 and sped off.
“In a typical Rambo style, these guys immediately covered the suspect’s face with a sack, took him to Senior Police Officer’s residence and beat him up mercilessly until he became unconscious.

The victim’s wife and children didn’t know where he was and, together with several others, began searching for his whereabouts”, the resident said.
He continued that: “someone managed to get us the registration number of one of the vehicles used to pick the man and when the number was reported to the Regional Crime Officer of the Police Service, it was realised that that vehicle belonged to these PID personnel and up till now, the case is still pending.”

May 2022 Nkoranza killing:

At Nkoranza, most people who spoke to our reporter accused the PID as being behind the killing of the late Albert Donkor of Nkoranza nearly one year ago.
The body of Albert Donkor has still not been given to the family for burial since his ‘gruesome murder’ by the police, on 18th May 2022 while nobody has also been arrested and prosecuted on the matter.

27-year-old Albert Donkor was a multi-TV decoder installer and completed the Nkoranza Technical Institute in 2016, was picked up from his room by the police, including personnel of PID, deep in the night and was allegedly taken to the Nkoranza Police Station, from where he was allegedly maltreated and killed by his preys.

Residents of the town upon hearing of the action of the Police went on rampage and virtually brought all activities in the town to a standstill as they burnt tyres and blocked some key roads to register their displeasure.
The police, in their bid to control the crowd fired into them, killing another person in the process.
Some residents of Nkoranza believe that, per their investigations, Albert was intentionally picked up and killed because he had spotted one Police Officer of the PID unit among some armed robbers who were carrying out a robbery activity on the main Techiman – Kintampo highway.
The late Albert Donkor is said to have disclosed the identity of the police officer to a friend at Nkoranza who in turn informed the said officer about what he had heard about him.
The said police officer therefore led his colleagues to hunt for Albert Donkor with the view to ending his life so that nobody hears about his involvement in armed robbery.
Attempts to get the side of PID leadership in the region has so far been unsuccessful.Stay tuned for further development of the story!