A certain Abdul Karim Issa has brought the case involving COP Patrick Timbillah to the public domain during an interaction with DAILY GUIDE.
He walked into the offices of the paper to, as he put it, pose a question to the Police administration about the case and why it has taken so long to dispose of even after an earlier promise that the probe was complete.
“It is improper to allow a case in which members of the public have an interest to hang the way this case has. Those responsible are not doing justice to the superior police officer concerned and the country as a whole,” he said.
Members of the public, he said, need to know the outcome of the investigations into the allegation that the man had collected monies from prospective police recruits.
Such deliberate delay in coming out with the outcome of the investigation into the allegation suggests something fishy is being hatched, he went on, adding that “the Police administration should not compel Ghanaians to think that it is hiding something given the high-profile nature of the case.
COP Patrick Timbillah was interdicted a year and five months ago following a hyped detention of the officer at his residence and media treatment of the case.
Ghanaians were told that the matter was being investigated and that at the end of it, they would be told about the action to be taken.
The police officer has had his accounts frozen as he awaits the outcome of the investigation.
It would be recalled that when the case popped up, the Police administration gave contradictory information on whether or not interdicted COP Patrick Timbillah had been put under house arrest for his alleged involvement in the biggest police recruitment scandal that hit the country.
Then Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Cephas Arthur said reports that Director General of Police Human Resource and Administration COP Patrick Timbillah had been put under house arrest last Friday were not entirely accurate.
He said the embattled police officer was never put under house arrest and that he had been “interdicted” and restricted from undertaking his normal duties as a police officer.
On the other hand, the then Director General of the Police Public Relations DCOP David Ampah-Benin said Timbillah had been put under house arrest and would not interfere with subsequent investigations.
He said the embattled police officer was restricted from performing his usual duties.
This was to enable the Service undertake proper investigations into the issue without his interference, he added.
However, COP Dr George Akufo Dampari, then Director-General in-charge of Finance and Patrol at the police service, told the media that the service noticed that putting COP Timbillah under house arrest was improper, hence the decision to reverse the house arrest sanction.
He said no restriction had been placed on his movement, except in the police service.
Dr. Kwesi Aning, a security expert, had said at the time that every institution would have such challenges here and there, but because the Police is a frontline institution, such matters tend to be blown out of proportion.
He said it would be appropriate for COP Timbillah to be given the benefit of doubt for a proper investigation to be properly conducted into the issue before he is pronounced guilty.
It’s unclear if the proper investigation has been conducted.
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