Some presidential candidates have added their voices to calls for police protection for presidential hopefuls ahead of the December 2020 polls.
This follows the deployment of 200 police to guard Members of Parliament till the end of the year.
According to the presidential hopefuls, their lives are equally at risk.
In an interview on Eyewitness News, the flagbearer for the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga recounted instances where his life had been in danger.
“We have had the experience of attacks before, twice actually. I was attacked by armed robbers in Wa in the year 2012, the second was in Enchi. In 2016, four policemen were deployed to each presidential candidate, but this year, there’s been nothing. The president moves about with police security. The former president also moves around with police security. So far as we all are running for the same position, we deserve the same form of security,” he argued.
He said a letter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) requesting for police protection has not been responded to.
“Currently we have engaged private security including the party’s security. We wrote to the IGP three months ago, requesting security for the flagbearer, but we still have had no response.”
The flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ivor Kobina Greenstreet also said “Currently, we do not have any protection from the state. During the 2016 elections, we did receive written correspondence from the office of the IGP stating the security they will provide for the period which they duly did and was very important during that period of time. I believe that security is important.”
Mr. Greenstreet said his party has had to provide for him an improvised form of security.
“We have our own personnel who have been accompanying us on specific duties.”
200 police officers deployed to guard MPs
The Minister of Interior, Ambrose Dery revealed on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, that the Ministry has deployed 200 police to serve as guards to Members of Parliament (MPs) till the end of the year.
He also disclosed that plans are underway to provide 800 additional police officers to protect the homes of the MPs in the coming years.
The Minister was summoned by the Parliament to appear before it with plans for enhanced security following the killing of Mfantseman MP, Ekow Quansah Hayford.
Mr. Hayford was shot dead over a week ago by some unknown assailants on the Abeadze Dominase–Abeadze Duadzi–Mankessim road in the Central Region.
The MP and some executives of the NPP were returning from a campaign trip when the incident occurred.
