The Police Administration has reviewed threats to withdraw police escorts on bullion vans used for carting money by banks if the financial institutions fail to provide fortified armoured vehicles for that purpose.

Under a new arrangement, banks will use a pool of fortified armoured bullion vans provided by the Bank of Ghana.

The police, on the other hand, according to the Director-General of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service, Mr Isaac Ken Yeboah, who announced this to journalists in Accra, would ensure personnel on duty on such bullion vans were well protected.

Additionally, he said, the Police have directed that more than one police personnel were put on duty on such vehicles.

Robbery

In the wake of incessant robbery attacks on bullion vans in the country, the Inspector General of Police, Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, threatened to withdraw police personnel who provided escort duties on bullion vans if they failed to provide fortified armoured vehicles within two weeks.

The directive also followed observations that the vehicles used by most banks operating in Ghana as bullion vans are not fit-for-purpose, putting both the personnel and the money being transported at risk.

A number of police officers on these special duties have repeatedly complained about the unavailability of bulletproof vests and sophisticated weapons to protect them on these assignments, aside from the sub-standard bullion vans.

Following a robbery on a bullion van at Adedenpo, a suburb of James Town in Accra on Monday, June 14, 2021, the IGP said he would stop his officers from providing protection for bullion vans if the banks failed to use fortified armoured vehicles by the end of June this year.

The attack led to the killing of a police officer and a trader.

Mr Yeboah said ahead of the deadline of the IGP’s threat the regulator of the banks had indicated that the time frame given to the banks to acquire the fortified vans was short.

He said the regulator of the banks had, therefore, requested that a temporary measure was put in place while the banks made plans to adhere to the directives of the police administration.