[ 2012-05-25 ]

Paul Tawiah Quaye is the IGP

Police recruits accuse instructors of extortion
Recruits who are due to pass out at the Police
Training School in Kumasi have accused some of
their instructors of allegedly extorting money
from them.

They claimed that three of the 12 drill
instructors at the school had, since January this
year, been collecting GH˘10 from each of the 232
recruits every month.

But the drill officers have denied the allegation,
saying it was being perpetrated out of malice and
hatred.

According to the spokesman of the recruits, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, any recruit who
failed to pay the money from his meagre monthly
allowances incurred the wrath of the instructors.

Names of those being accused are being withheld.

According to the spokesman, some of the senior
instructors directed their subordinates to collect
the money every month.

“We have no option but to pay the money to them
because any one who hesitates in paying the money
is severely doubled up. We have been paying the
GH˘10 since we started receiving our allowances in
January this year,” he said.

When contacted, the three officers in the presence
of their superiors, a female recruit (name
withheld) who was invited to comment on the
allegation confirmed that each of the recruits
paid GH˘10 every month.

However, she said the money was always collected
by the recruits themselves to cater for their
welfare and other necessities “but not given to
the drill officer, as is being alleged”.

She said she could not give off hand the total
amount of money the recruits had in their coffers
regarding the contributions they had so far made
and the expenditure so far made.

When contacted, one of the senior instructors
vehemently denied the allegation, saying, “I was
out of the country on a peacekeeping operation and
only returned in November last year and I,
therefore, could not have directed anyone to
extort money from the recruits, as is being
alleged.”

When he was reminded that the alleged extortion
started from January 2012 when he assumed duty as
an instructor at the Police Training School, he
said the allegation was out of malice and hatred.

“I have no hand in the equation about any
extortion of money from recruits at the depot,” he
said.

The two other police officers also vehemently
denied the allegation, claiming that they had
never extorted any money from the recruits.

When asked why, out of the 12 drill officers at
the depot they should be singled out as those who
had been extorting money from the recruits, the
two said they could not answer that question.

Source - Daily Graphic

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