The Ghana Police Service has partnered waste management giant Zoomlion Ghana Limited to fumigate and disinfect all police facilities and installations across the country against dangerous insects and the deadly coronavirus.
More than 1, 200 facilities including the six police training schools, police stations and cells as well as bungalows for police personnel will be fumigated and disinfected to create a safe environment for police officers to perform their duties.
Inspector General of Police, COP James Oppong-Boanuh, joined officials of Zoomlion on Wednesday perform the official launch for the takeoff of the exercise at the Police Training School in Accra.
The exercise will be done simultaneously across the country.
Launching the exercise, the IGP Mr Oppong-Boanuh lauded the longstanding partnership between the police and Zoomlion Ghana Limited which he said has resulted in several initiatives including the fumigation.
“It is believed that the exercise when completed will create a more conducive atmosphere for habitation and the rest, how we keep ourselves safe will depend on conforming to the preventive measures that have already been outlined by the president,” he explained.
Mr Oppong- Boanuh has meanwhile revealed personnel who contract the deadly coronavirus in the performance of their duties will receive a special package from the Ghana Police Service.
Such package, he stated, will also be extended to the family members of the affected personnel.
A covid-19 technical team, he said, has been constituted at the police headquarters in Accra to deal with all matters involving police personnel in relation to the coronavirus, which has so far infected over 2,700 people in the country and killed 18 of them with 297 recoveries.
“To the personnel of the Ghana Police Service who have devoted your lives to help enforce the restrictions or let me say who have risked your lives to ensure that the restrictions are enforced, the Police Service thank you very much for your devotion,” he said.
COP Oppong-Boanuh said the Police management board appreciates their sacrifices, stating that “appropriate measures have been put in place to support you and prevent you from getting infections and any of you who is infected in the course of your duty”.
The IGP said the covid-19 technical team will ensure the uniformed men and women will “get maximum support as well as members of your family in this difficult time”.
He suggested some of the about 5,000 personnel who were deployed for the anti-covid-19 lockdown duties in Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi have been infected by the virus but did not give further details.
“As you are all aware, The Ghana Police Service and other security agencies have partnered the Ghana Health Service as frontliners to help fight this pandemic. It is not surprising to have a number of police personnel come in contact with infected persons and also get infected,” he stated.
For his part, the Director General in charge of General Services at the Ghana Police Service, Mr George Alex Mensah said “The police officer needs to be safe, needs to be healthy to protect lives and properties”.
“We are going to do it simultaneously across all the regions. We hope and pray that almost all our facilities; about 1,200 will be disinfected and fumigated to ensure that our men and women are safe” he added.
The IGP and the police management board, he said, will ensure that the “men and women in uniform work in safe environment”.
He noted that the fumigation and disinfection exercise is important to ensuring the health and safety of police personnel.
The Head of Disinfection at Zoomlion, Reverend Ebenezer Kwame Addae said they will disinfect and fumigate a total of 1,249 police stations and cells across the country.
Rev. Addae said their inspection showed some of the facilities were infested with insects like bed bugs, thus necessitating the need to fumigate those facilities including the training schools and bungalows against such insects.
“When we did our inspection we saw that there are insects and bed bugs infestation and therefore there is the need to do fumigation,” he stated, adding in “the barracks, we will be doing both [fumigation and disinfection].
By 3news.com|Ghana