Ambrose Dery, the Minister for the Interior and a member of parliament (MP) for Nandom Constituency, has stated that security in Accra, the nation’s capital, has increased since Christmas.
He revealed this in Parliament after being questioned about the state of security in the city.
“I’m able to gauge that the public reaction and assessment of the issue is generally positive. You go to places and the chiefs tell you that for some time now, we have had no crime here. And they go ahead to say these police who have come here are doing well. And this is positive. General impression is positive about the police and security in the country.
“Even some diplomats in the country called me and told me that there is a vast improvement in Accra. Some foreign banks manager came to my office to meet me to discuss facilities such as the armored vehicles to convey money but she first thanked me that she came from the airport, sat in her car and drove to my office alone, with no traffic and everything was safe because from where she comes from, it is not possible. And I would not mention names.”
Ambrose Dery
The Interior Minister reaffirmed that all aspects of general security had been good. Including that the availability of facilities for the fire department, police department, or immigration services had been made possible by the number of members from both sides of the house.
According to him, he was trying to support initiatives like these because, given the ministry’s current financial situation, certain expenses are not covered by its budget.
GHC1.80p Feeding For Inmates Worrying
The Interior Minister was questioned by Hon. Kwame Gakpe, MP for the Keta Constituency, regarding the policy direction for the feeding of prisoners in the various jails nationwide and the cost per prisoner.
In response, Mr. Ambrose Dery said that the Ghana Prisons Service now received GHC1.80pesewas per head, per day from the Central Government to feed prisoners. He noted that the service’s Agricultural branch supported government efforts by selling its farm products to the inmates at discounts.
“It has also become less mandatory for all prison facilities to cultivate vegetables to supplement the prisoners’ feeding. The daily rate of GHC1.80p is roughly inadequate. The prisons service has submitted a proposal for the increment of the feeding rate from GHC1.80p to GHC5.
“So, the policy direction is that we are pursuing an increase in the daily feeding rate and also supporting the agriculture division by linking them with Agric and giving them equipment such as tractors and the rest. So, those are the two fronts that we are trying to fight. So, I believe that we will finally end up here because if we want to go from GHC1.80P to GH5, there is no way we can do that without coming back to this house.”
Ambrose Dery
Ambrose Dery responded that this has been a difficulty throughout the years within parliament and yet it still stays at GHC1.80p, when questioned how the prisoners are being fed with a meager GHC1.80p per day when a “olonka” of beans was GH22.
“I’ve told you where the other sources are and that is we working with the Agric to put them on the various programmes to subsidize them with input. But we do know that before proposing from GHC1.80, you can imagine that it will not work but with GHC5, yes it will be a great support and we will find ways of supplementing that.”
Ambrose Dery
Additionally, when the Interior Minister was questioned about any plans wherein inmates would be given access to different fields in order to grow food crops for their own sustenance, he stated that he had told the house that not all inmates were in formal establishments and that some were in agricultural camps.
“We have farm camps jotted all over the country and on these farm camps, we’ve got prisoners who sentences are not for any capital offenses that come there and farm. And probably if you have one here, you might want to offer it to us. We do have farms that are purely to supplement the feeding of the prisoners.”
Ambrose Dery
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