The Police Administration has indicated that personnel of the Marine Police Unit (MPU) at Anyinase in the Western Region are not trained marines.
It said the personnel were rather in the Anyinase community to undertake outreach duties on educating the fisher-folk on fisheries laws.
It has been reported that personnel of the MPU in the Western Region are idling in the community, while others have been reassigned to do general policing or engaged in bank guard duties
That development is said to have brought the marine operations of the Ghana Police Service, which was relaunched by the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, on June 2, 2013, to a halt.
60 marine officers
However, in a reaction to the story published in the Daily Graphic on March 11, 2014, the Director General of the Police Public Affairs Directorate, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr David Ampah-Bennin, in a statement, said personnel of the unit were performing their duties without digression.
In fulfilment of Ghana’s security plan for the oil and gas industry, he said, 60 officers had been trained and stationed in Tema and Takoradi for marine, port and railway duties.
He explained that the Anyinase Marine Police Academy was not yet a full-fledged training institution, as it was still under construction, and that policemen at the base were only being accommodated for the outreach programme.
Maintenance
On reports that personnel in Takoradi were being ignored in terms of the maintenance of the broken-down boats, he explained that the marines who operated the boats were not trained engineers.
“They were trained to operate the pieces of equipment, but not to service or repair them when they are faulty. They can consequently not claim to be ignored in the maintenance of the vessels,” he said.
For proper maintenance of the vessels, he said, the police service had concluded arrangements with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to undertake servicing of the vessels as and when necessary.
On the broken-down vessels, he said all the six boats of the MPU, including four in Tema and two in Takoradi, were functioning, contrary to the report that four of them were grounded.
Commenting on financial support from the Fisheries Commission, Mr Ampah-Bennin said funds released to the MPU in 2013 under a World Bank project were judiciously used and had been fully accounted for at the close of the year, in accordance with World Bank project rules.
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Daily Graphic
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