The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. John Kudalor, has been directed to consider the promotion of sports personalities within the service who continue to bring honour to the institution.
The special consideration, the Interior Minister said, should be one of the cardinal issues to be discussed at the next Police Management Board meeting and the outcome should be communicated back to him.
Mr. Proper Douglas Bani gave the directive in Accra last Friday at an awards ceremony to honour police sports personalities for bringing honour to the service over the years.
He said the contribution of the personalities had brought more fame to the service and within the sports arena where a number of them had contributed immensely to the various sporting disciplines of the national teams.
The minister mentioned athletics, swimming, volleyball, hockey among others where the police personalities shown teamwork, discipline, professionalism and competitiveness.
He said considering the fact that some of them may be aging, it was important to recruit fresh ones to replace them, noting he had discussed that with the Youth and Sports Minister so that more sports personalities would be considered in this year’s enlistment.
Mr. Bani said government was considering the construction a of state-of-the art sports facilities to equip them in their trainings.
The Minister explained that though there were some facilities, there was the need to build a larger one that could contain them in 20 years’ time.
He also touched on the need to revive the Security Sports Association (SESA) games in order to tap more talents within the security fraternity.
The IGP said the performance of the various teams had inspired other teams to do same when the opportunities arose.
He mentioned, for instance, the good performance of the female hockey team in Zambia last year, where the police team shrugged off the debutante tag by beating the tournament favourites like the Lusaka Sharks of Zambia 4-1 and the Sharkia of Egypt 6-1.
“They also held the eventual tournament winners, Orange of Kenya to 3-3 draw, in the preliminaries before succumbing to them in the final 2-3 penalties having drawn 1-1 with them in regulation time,” he said.
The IGP mentioned the wonderful display by the volleyball teams in the Africa Zone 3 tournament held in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire in August last year, as an ample testimony.
The men volleyball team, he said, emerged as champions at the end of the competition with the women volleyball team placing third, describing that as remarkable.
The records, the IGP said, were replete with police sports personalities scaling the heights and standing out in the arena of sports both locally and internationally.
The Director-General in charge of Welfare, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Bright Oduro, said the occasion was instituted years back to appreciate officers and personnel of the service for their exemplary performance and conduct.
“This cherished tradition was relaxed for a long while until a couple of years ago when it was revived,” he said.
Making reference to an adage that “a nation that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for,” DCOP Oduro said that was the more reason why the awards was instituted to honour such personalities to boost their morale so as to urge others to do same.
