Government has deployed over 200 police officers to protect Members of Parliament (MPs), Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has said.
This follows the gruesome murder of the member of Parliament for Mfantseman Constituency, Ekow Quansah Hayford.
Ekow Quansah Hayford was shot by suspected contract killers when he was returning from a campaign rally at Nkusukum Mankessim on the Abeadze Duadze road on Friday at 1 am.
An eyewitness, who was with the MP as at the time of the incident, said they were returning from a campaign rally when they sighted a truck which was stuck in a middle of the road.
He added that they only noticed the truck was that of armed robbers when they had gotten closer to the truck.
“They thought we were not stopping so they started shooting at us. They came to our vehicle and requested that they hand over our phones and monies to them. They took my phone and money and asked the MP to do same. Just when the MP was about to speak, they dragged him out of the car and told him that politicians are the reason the country is going through hardship. I however managed to run into the bus and all I heard was gun shots”, the eyewitness narrated.
He added that he came out of the bush after an hour to meet the lifeless body of the Member of Parliament.
Ambrose Dery noted that government is making this arrangement to ensure that the unit attains the status of divisional police command to take care of the Members of Parliament as bodyguards.
“So we have proposed that, between now and the end of the year, we are going to provide an additional 200 police personnel to be part of the parliamentary protection unit. We are making this arrangement to ensure that the unit attains the status of divisional police command to take care of the Members of Parliament as bodyguards. Ideally to get to where we want to get to means that, subsequently, we should have 800 police added so that each MP will also have security at home in the day and night. Due to the retooling of the security agencies by President [Nana Addo Dankwa] Akufo-Addo, the country has more security agencies and security personnel available,” Ambrose Dery said on the floor of Parliament.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Vivian Adu Boatemaa
