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Independent body needed to
investigate complaints against police
Ho, March 27, Ghanadot/GNA - Nana Kwasi
Agyepong, the Business Development Manager of the Ghana
Integrity Initiative (GII), on Thursday suggested that
independent bodies should investigate complaints against police
personnel.
He said it was hardly possible for anything good to come out of
complaints of extortion against a police officer lodged with a
superior officer who could be a beneficiary of monies so
extorted.
Nana Agyepong was speaking at a two-day workshop organized by
the GII on “Zero Tolerance against Corruption Campaign: the Role
of Religious Bodies in Ghana,” in Ho.
He said in some countries, complaints bureaux for settlement of
grievances against the police and other government institutions
were largely independent of the administrative machinery of
those institutions.
Religious leaders and traditional authorities are attending the
workshop organized by the GII, National Catholic Secretariat,
Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission and the Christian Council of Ghana.
Nana Agyepong said corruption, whether petty or grand, was
rampant in Ghana and must be fought.
He said the GII, the Ghanaian chapter of Transparency
International (TI), decided to rope in religious bodies as key
collaborators because they appeared well placed to help
prosecute its anti-corruption agenda.
Nana Agyepong said religious groups and their leaders were very
influential, highly respected and listened to by the majority of
Ghanaians and appeared well placed to carry out the
anti-corruption agenda.
During an open forum, however, religious bodies came under fire
for doing very little to curb corruption.
Rev. Seth Mawutor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Ho slammed
the church for only preaching and not producing good disciples
who would go into politics and public service as bastions of
sanctity.
“Preaching is different, we have failed in discipleship training
so that many of the corrupt are Christians,” he said.
Mr Victor Kwawukume, a journalist, expressed worry that good
Ghanaian values of truthfulness, modesty, transparency were
being supplanted by immodesty and greed.
Right Reverend Francis Amenu, Moderator of the General Assembly
of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, said the Church must
fight corruption from within itself to gain the people’s
confidence in its fight against corruption at the national
level.
GNA |
