Santa Maria Assembly Member Joins Hands With Police To Educate People In Community On Criminal Activities

The Assembly Member for Santa Maria Electoral Area in the Ga Central Municipality of the Greater Accra Region, Nana Kwasi Boandwoh Jnr, has called on all and sundry including drivers and transport owners in the municipality to give maximum support to the Ghana Police Service for that matter Sowutuom District Command of the Ghana Police Service and other national security personnels to effectively deliver on their constitutional mandate to end crimes and hard criminal activities in the municipality

The young assembly member indicated that the unalloyed support of the good people of Santa Maria electoral area and its adjoining communities in the Ga Central municipality  will invigorate the police officers in Sowutuom District Police Command to apply all the laws, rules and regulations without fear or favour.

He stressed that reposing confidence in the police would strengthen them to efficiently and effectively deliver perfectly on their mandate to reduce criminal activities in Santa Maria and its adjoining communities in the Ga State.

Nana Kwasi Boandwoh Jnr disclosed this when he was speaking at You &The Police Programme he organised at Santa Maria Last Stop near the Dunwell Methodist Chapel Lane on Wednesday March 8, 2023.

The event was aimed at bridging the gap between police and the community and also educate them on the duties of a police officer in the Santa Maria enclaves.

The event was heavily attended by high dignitaries in the persons of the Director In Charge of Community Policing Unit - Tesano in the person of ACP Mr Oscar Amevenku , Sowutuom District Police Commander Chief Supt Patience Akwetey, Supervisor of Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD),

ASP Tawia Oppong, The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Ga Central Municipal Assembly, Hon Mohammed Bashiru Kamara, Coordinators,  Assembly Member for Antieku Electoral Area, Hon Sam Donkor and Operation clean your frontage (City Response Team) among others.

Nana Kwasi Boandwoh Jnr reiterated his commitment and readiness to work closely with police officers, chiefs, queen-mothers, traditional office holders and religious leaders and youths to end the perennial problems of criminal activities in Santa Maria and its adjoining communities to make the area a safety community.

According to him, there have been several reported cases of the unnecessary internal fights, armed robbery attacks, thieves among others being perpetrated by some miscreants to the residents in the area which has posed a serious threat to the lives of the residents of Santa Maria.

 

The Assembly member used the occasion to brief the youths and people of his yet to be established neighborhood watch committee in Santa Maria with the intention to end the criminal activities in Santa Maria enclaves in Accra.

He stated that the incessant criminal activities within the Santa Maria enclave have become worried to him and some concerned traditional authorities and their intended move to devise proactive measures to form a watchdog committee and police post.

He encouraged the people in the community to join the neighborhood watch committee to end the perennial problems of criminal activities in Santa Maria and its adjoining communities to make the area a safety community.

The Director in charge of Community Policing Ghana, the Sowutuom District Police Commander, the station officer for CPU, Supervisor of Motor Transport and Traffic Directorate (MTTD), other officers present of the Ghana Police Service schooled the gathering about the importance and tasks of the community policing in the community.

The senior police officers stated that the 

community policing is generally defined as a law enforcement philosophy that allows officers to continuously operate in the same area in order to create a stronger bond with the citizens living and working in that area.

Additionally, they pointed out that this allows public safety officers to engage with local residents and prevent crime from happening instead of responding to incidents after they occur. 

The event which looked like interactive form made Sowutuom District Police Commander, Chief Suprieterdent Akwetey Ophelia addressed the gathering and called on the people, particularly the drivers not to give bribes to police officers when committed crimes. 

Chief Suprieterdent Akwetey Ophelia stressed that the public should to be mindful that it is unlawful for the police officers to take bribes from the individual or drivers in the event of committing any crime.

"It is not possible for the drivers or general public to give bribes to police officers when committed crime to be allowed by the police to go scott free.

The senior police officers took the people through the kind of crimes related issues in the community which disturb peace and unity within the community and cautioned them against these crimes not to land into the grip of the law.

The police officers cautioned the people not pay money before administer bail for someone who had been arrested and detailed in the police cell.

She stressed that when "you visit Sowutuom police station all the warning signs were written bold on the wall in the police station together with her personal contact and also location to her office in the building."

According to her, the police services to the general public are free and that police reward their personnel with ranks and that they don't take money.

The MCE of Ga Central Municipal Assembly Mohammed Bashiru mounted the podium to extensively brief the gathering about the projects and programmes ongoing in the various electoral areas within the municipality.

He said that he thinks that the drivers or people should see the police as their superior in the community and accord that respect for them in order to maintain peace in the community.