Director of Police Public Relations, DSP Kwesi Ofori has welcomed the 20-year jail sentence handed to each of six policemen, saying serving officers will take a cue from it.

A circuit court in Accra on Tuesday jailed Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Patrick Kwapong, Chief Inspector Thomas Adu, Sergeant John Adjapong, Corporal Lawrence Dennis Quansah, Lance Corporal Karim Muntari and Constable Benjamin Blejumah along with four other civilians to 20 years imprisonment each on two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery.

The sentence has provoked mixed reactions among personnel of the police force, with some believing the sentence was too harsh.

But in a reaction to Joy News, DSP Ofori said the service respects the decision of the court, hoping it will go a long way to check indiscipline in the system.

He said personnel by this sentence will learn to operate within the confines of the law, and will eschew criminal activities that will dent the image of the profession.

He dismissed assertions that conviction tarnished the reputation of the police administration. If anything, he argued the police should be acknowledged for the role it played in the arrest, investigations and prosecution of the accused persons.

DSP Ofori said in a bid to flash out miscreants in the service, 38 personnel have been dismissed with 34 others on interdiction for various crimes, insisting that his outfit will at all times maintain the highest code of discipline in the service.

Meanwhile, a security expert at the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Centre, Dr Emmanuel Anning said the six policemen are well deserving of the sentence.

It will send a strong signal that Ghana is not a safe haven for wrong doers, he opined.


Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana