President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday swore in members of the Police and the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) councils at a ceremony at the Jubilee House in Accra.
The members of the councils took the official oath and the oath of secrecy.
Police Council
The Police Council is chaired by the Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and the members include the Minister of the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery; the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare; the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame; Mr Kwaku Bram-Larbi, representing the Ghana Bar Association, and a retired Commissioner of Police (COP), Mr Joseph Boakye Appiah, representing the Retired Senior Police Officers Association.
The rest are Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Faustina Agyeiwaa K. Andoh-Kwofie, representing the senior rank of the Ghana Police Service; Inspector Felix Essuman, representing the junior ranks, and Mr Hadih A. Bin Salih and Madam Cecilia Eguakun, nominees of the President.
Armed Forces Council
The Vice-President again chairs the GAF Council, with the Minister of Defence, Mr Dominic Nitiwul; the Minister of the Interior, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, and the Chief of the Defence Staff, Vice-Admiral Seth Amoama, as some of the members.
Others are the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshal Frank Hanson; the Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. T. Oppong-Peprah, and the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Issah Adam Yakubu.
The rest are Brig. Gen. R.O. Sackey (retd), Col C.B. Ankomah-Danso (retd) and Master Warrant 0fficer Daniel Addo, a Senior Warrant Officer, all nominees of the President.
Constitutional bodies
President Akufo-Addo, in his address to the Police Council, said the council was one of the most important organs of the state, for which reason he would count on the members to discharge their functions well to help maintain law and order in the country.
“The effective execution of your mandate is premised on helping the IGP build a professional Police Service that is accountable, responsive, transparent, trustworthy and respectful of human rights and accommodates the concerns of the public it serves,” he said.
He said the actions of the IGP had so far received the strong backing of Ghanaians, as many were now realising that the laws of the land would not spare anybody who fell foul of the law.
Logistics