EXHIBIT DISCIPLINE TO WIN PUBLIC CONFIDENCE (Daily Graphic, Monday, November 10, 2008 PAGE 40)

THE Upper East Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Hamidu Mahama, has advised police personnel in the region to exhibit a high sense of professional discipline and competence to win the confidence and sympathy of the public.
Police personnel, he said, should refrain from acts that would impugn the credibility and dignity of the profession.
DCOP Mahama gave the advice after leading personnel of the service to embark on a three-hour endurance walk through the principal streets of Bolgatanga.
The exercise was also to create awareness of the preparedness of the Ghana Police Service to ensure that the ongoing electioneering and the December 7 general election were conducted peacefully.
DCOP Mahama cautioned that anyone caught causing or to have caused trouble before, during and after the elections would be treated as an individual criminal and not a member of any political party.
He urged political parties to adhere to the electoral laws and the Public Order Act in order to safeguard the prevailing peace.
DCOP Mahama proposed that to ensure peace before, during and after the elections, all stakeholders, including the Electoral Commission (EC), the media, the security services, political parties, civil society and Ghanaians in general, should play their respective roles effectively.
The Regional Police Command, he added, was adequately resourced, both logistically and in terms of personnel.
According to DCOP Mahama, the region would soon take delivery of more logistics which would be evenly distributed to the personnel to ensure that people who were preparing to undermine the process were brought to book.
He said the exercise would be replicated in major towns such as Navrongo, Sandema and Bawku to demonstrate the readiness of the police to deal with all election-related violence.