Superintendent Naa Hamza Yakubu, a former commander of the Formed Police Unit who has retired from the police service, has revealed that some police officers do plant narcotics on civilians.
The former Commander’s comments come at the back of the arrest of one Mr Patrick Asiedu, an Uber driver, after he claimed in a video that has been widely circulated on social media that, he was stopped by some officers who planted narcotics in his car.
The Ghana Police Service in a statement noted that its investigations, so far, indicate that the claims of Mr Patrick Aseidu were all false.
However, speaking in an interview, Mr Hamza Yakubu stated that there are some bad nuts in the police service who do plant drugs on civilians during car searches. He indicated that he has witnessed that before.
“Whenever a person is stopped by the police for a search, I believe they would normally not just start conducting the search without notifying the occupant of the vehicle or the driver. So when you are the driver and the police requests to have a search of your vehicle, what I would advise is that: do not sit in the car because you feel frustrated by the demand to have your vehicle searched and just open the boot from the steering compartment and then sit there unconcerned waiting for the police to do their checks.”
Mr Yakubu
According to him, that posture allows bad police officers to plant illicit substances in civilians’ cars, “because we cannot dispute the fact that there are some police officers who would want to do exactly that and have been doing it.”
“I can also confirm it. I would not mention names, but I have had the occasion of seeing some police officers do that some time ago, which is a very very despicable and bad practice that should never ever be entertained.
“So, in order to get yourself from that thing, you get down from the vehicle yourself, open the vehicle, stand aside, and watch closely.”
Mr Yakubu
Acccording to the former Superintendent, a citizen has the right to demand that only one police officer should conduct such a search.
“If, let’s say there are about four of them and all four attempt to do a search, please, citizens of Ghana, raise an objection to that and request that only one person should do that while you watch closely but if you feel big or feel angry because you have been asked to allow your vehicle to be searched, you sit in your vehicle and say, ‘carry on with your search’ and they come out and say they found this thing, it will be so unfortunate.”
Mr Yakubu
Previous Cautioning Of Service Members
During IGP Oppong Boanuh’s administration, the Ghana Police Service issued an internal memo against the practice.
According to the memo, “reports reaching the headquarters indicate that some personnel deployed on motor traffic duties and highway patrols have cultivated a habit of planting narcotic substances in the vehicle of individuals and turn around to arrest them on charges of possession of narcotics. This situation is not only embarrassing to the police administration but unprofessional on the part of officers involved in the practice.”
To deal with the situation, the memo instructed that “for the avoidance of doubt and to stem the practice in the bud, the Inspector General of Police directs, henceforth, that all such patrol units should be led by an SPO who shall be held accountable for any such unprofessional conduct”.
“Additionally, personnel have reported that some commanders of these units assign monetary targets to the duty personnel to be brought after the duties. Commanders should, therefore, be made aware that special task forces have been set up to interview patrol, MTTD and highway duties personnel on these”
Police Service
Mr Yakubu further emphasized that, “if that caution came from the head of the police service, then it stands to show that, indeed, there are police officers who do that.”
