A former Special Officer with the Bureau of National Investigation, Richard Kumadoe, has stated that Ghana’s investigative agencies, including EOCO, are under no legal obligation to issue public statements when arresting individuals under investigation.
The Security Consultant made the remarks during an exclusive interview with The Vaultz News, in response to ongoing political criticism of the Economic and Organised Crime Office over its recent high-profile arrests.
Asked whether state investigative bodies should be required to announce arrests publicly, or whether doing so risks compromising the presumption of innocence before charges are formally laid, Mr Kumadoe was direct in his response, stating plainly that no such obligation exists under standard procedure.
“No, they are not. The BNI will not tell you why they arrest people or the reasons for the arrest. They are not obliged. Once in a while, you will see EOCO announcing it. But should EOCO announce the whole time when they arrest people or when they are investigating people? No, they don’t”.
Security Consultant Richard Kumadoe
Other Agencies Follow Similar Practice
Mr Kumadoe pointed to how other state institutions handle public communication around investigations, noting that even bodies known for regular public engagement, such as the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the CID, typically limit formal announcements to the point of filing cases.
“Because even OSP they file their cases and calls for a press conference. Is that not it? If you look at CID, the police will tell you on a daily basis what they are doing. But even with that one, the CID will file their cases and call a press conference.
Security Consultant Richard Kumadoe
He noted that such disclosures, while not mandatory, tend to benefit journalists and communicators seeking clarity on ongoing cases, and can occasionally serve the interests of the person under investigation as well.
“For your safety, your security, your reputation, and many things. It’s about you, actually, in some instances. But as a matter of law and in line with standard procedure, as in law enforcement investigators or investigative agencies, they will not. Because they are not obliged”.
Security Consultant Richard Kumadoe
International Practice Backs His Position
To reinforce his argument, Mr Kumadoe referenced how leading global security agencies handle public disclosure, pointing specifically to MI5, MI6 and the FBI as institutions that maintain similar discretion regarding ongoing investigations.
“You guys, sometimes you compare our country to America, Britain, Canada, MI5, MI6. Did you ever hear them telling the general public the people they are investigating? No, they don’t.
“The task force of the FBI, you will always see them in the public space. But the actual officers and what they are doing, what they are not doing, they don’t tell the general public”.
Security Consultant Richard Kumadoe
He explained that the sheer volume of cases handled by such agencies makes routine public disclosure impractical, given the scale of investigative work carried out daily. “Because these are guys who deal with thousands and millions of cases. If they are issuing statements about each one of them, how is it going to look like?” he said.
Public Misunderstanding Fuels Political Tension
Mr Kumadoe attributed much of the criticism surrounding EOCO’s communication approach to a broader gap in public understanding, compounded by political framing that distorts how these processes actually work.
“So, it’s a whole lot of this underdevelopment, knowledge gap, and all manner of nonsense in the area of politics that creates a problem in the public space”.
Security Consultant Richard Kumadoe
He maintained that officers within these agencies remain professionals who understand the legal weight of their actions, adding that anyone who believes their rights have been violated retains a clear path to challenge such conduct through the courts.
Mr Kumadoe also pushed back against public claims suggesting that individuals arrested by security agencies sometimes cannot be located afterward, dismissing such assertions as misleading given the structured nature of Ghana’s law enforcement system.
“Sometimes, we hear people say they have arrested somebody and we cannot find them. That’s treacherous. The law enforcement agencies don’t have shrines and they don’t have cells in any booths”.
Security Consultant Richard Kumadoe
He explained that responsibility for a suspect’s whereabouts always rests clearly with whichever agency led the arrest, leaving little room for genuine confusion. “So, if the lead agency is the EOCO, then your client is in the EOCO. If the lead agency is the BNI, then your client is in the BNI. If the lead agency is the police, then your client is with the police. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
Journalists Urged to Verify Facts
Mr Kumadoe expressed concern that such distortions, when amplified without proper verification, damage public trust in state institutions and undermine efforts to build informed public discourse around law enforcement processes.
“When we hear some of those things, and we expect the journalists to know better, and they also don’t know better, it creates some level of distortions and discrepancies in the public space. Then, it looks like we are not serious. We don’t know what we are about. We don’t know what we are doing in terms of public education and creating awareness”.
Security Consultant Richard Kumadoe
His remarks add further weight to an ongoing debate about transparency, accountability and the appropriate limits of public disclosure by Ghana’s investigative agencies, particularly as political scrutiny of EOCO’s methods continues to intensify.
