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Hundreds of young men and women who turned up at five police training depots last Saturday for enlistment into the Ghana Police Service left disappointed.

They found that their recruitment letters were fake and that the purported enlistment was a scam.

It took the police a hectic time to send away the victims, most of them university graduates, who had gone to the Kumasi, Koforidua, Pwalugu, Accra and Ho Police depots with their luggage to begin the training.

Meanwhile, the police have mounted an intensive search for the arrest of persons who are behind the recruitment scam.

According to the Director General in charge of the Press and Public Affairs Department of the Ghana Police Service, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Rev David Nenyi Ampah-Benin, the scam was so well organised that all the victims were given appointment letters purported to have been written by the police.

Victims of scam

He said all the victims of the scam reported at the same time at the various depots with their luggage to start training.

He said the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the service had launched full-scale investigations into the scam to establish the masterminds of the crime.

DCOP Ampah-Benin said the victims were said to have paid money ranging from GH¢2,000 to GH¢3,500 to the fraudsters.

There are six police training depots in the country.  The training depot in Winneba has been converted into a Police Command and Staff College. 

DCOP Ampah-Benin said recruitment into the Ghana Police Service was free and that the police were not currently embarking on any recruitment exercise. 

He, therefore, called on members of the public to be wary of fraudsters, adding that the police did not contract people to recruit on their behalf.

“Anytime the police are ready to recruit, a publication will be made in the media to enable interested persons to apply,” he said.

Victims of fraud

The Director General also called on anybody who had fallen victim to the activities of recruitment fraudsters to report to the nearest police station or the CID.

He indicated that since 2012, the Police Service had not done any recruitment because those who were recruited in 2012 were trained in batches which ended in 2014, adding that the police were yet to determine whether or not to carry out any recruitment exercise.

Meanwhile, from Kumasi Daniel Kenu reports that there was near mayhem at the Police Training School at Patasi in Kumasi last Saturday when a group of people thronged the depot with their belongings to begin training. 

Unsuspecting applicants

The applicants had been deceived by a scam police recruiting agency which had taken large sums of money from them, with the promise to enlist them into the service. 

Authorities at the depot were taken by surprise during one of the shooting drills for an already recruited batch at Buoho, near Kumasi, when the frustrated young men and women besieged the premises. 

The men on duty had a tough time sending the intruders away, as some could still not come to terms with the fact that they had been swindled. 

Police sources

Police sources told the Daily Graphic that some of the victims had paid about GH¢3,000 just to join the service. 

The whereabouts of the agency which carried out the well-orchestrated scam are still unknown.

But the Ashanti Regional Police Command has mounted a search to track and arrest those behind the agency and possibly prosecute them. 

The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Ashanti Regional Police Service, Inspector Godwin Ahianyo, who confirmed the story, told the Daily Graphic that the service was not embarking on any interim recruitment exercise, either for short-term or  regular service.