Gender Minister calls on Acting IGP

Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection on Friday said Ghana is among the first 12th countries in the World where Gender Based Violence was predominant.

She has therefore reiterated the Ministry’s commitment to engaging development partners and the Ghana Police Service in campaigning against the act in the country.

Nana Oye Lithur revealed this when she paid a courtesy call on the Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan at his office in Accra on Friday.

She said the Ministry would partner with the police to train personnel of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) and the anti Human Trafficking Unit of the police in various areas to curb the situation.

The Minister stressed the need for the creation an inter-sectorial and ministerial platform with other ministries to discussed issues confronting them and urged Ghanaians to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies to do their work.

Nana Oye Lithur also noted that cyber crime among children in the country was increasing and suggested the collaboration of the police service, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology and Innovations to institute measures to control the situation.

She raised the issue of DOVVSU victims who pay for police reports at the various hospitals, saying that, it was wrong for victims of such crimes to pay money for police reports according to the DOVVSU Act.

Mr Alhassan, Acting IGP said the police service was building the capacities of officers to be more accessible in controlling crime and protecting lives and properties.

He said the integral part of the police is to protect lives and property of the citizens and that the five year strategic plan of the police service captured the capacity building of officers to deal with the challenges of Ghanaians.

Mr Alhassan said the police is faced with challenges that restrain the service from embarking on several activities and that, “The police is not able to get the budgetary allocations it needs to work fully.”

He said the United Nations ratio of the police to the citizens was 1 to 500, but Ghana’s ratio currently is 1 to 900 which was far from the UN ratio and urged Government to make funding available to train more police personnel to curb the challenges confronting the citizenry.

Mr Alhassan thanked the Ministry of the Interior, other ministries and public institutions for supporting the police to save lives and properties.