CID Operates In Kiosk �In 21st Century Ghana [PHOTO]

THE ASUOM police station in the Kwaebibirem district of the Eastern region which was built almost forty years ago is in a grave state of despair with some units of the service in the community operating in offices similar to a lotto kiosk. According to some police officers who expressed worry over the inadequate infrastructure and logistics at their disposal, they regret entering into the police service. Though limited infrastructure has been an age-old challenge to the men in black, crest-fallen officers at Asuom say, aside having to scoop volumes of water from their rooms at the least downpour, they repeat the same ordeal at the charge office and cells of the police post. �Since the police station in the area came into force 40 years ago, it has been in a rented makeshift structure,� one worried officer who pleaded strict condition of anonymity told the DAILY HERITAGE in an interview. The charge office of the police post is the only facility built in concrete, but, with time the building has become dilapidated. The rest of the various offices operate from a makeshift wooden structure which has decayed due to lack of proper maintenance, the paper can confidently report. So constrained is the Asuom police station that inscriptions indicating its various offices from the charge to criminal investigations department offices have been written with charcoal. Another limitation facing the 11 police officers manning the Asuom police post is the lack of an operational vehicle despite serving 20 communities. �Given the sordid state of the police station, we would have to close it down soon till our superiors refurbish it,� another concerned officer told the paper in an interview. The charge office, which the police can confidently boast of being in a good state to some extent, has its ceiling ripped off leaving a gaping hole. �Anytime it rains, the whole charge office and cells are flooded; we have to scoop the rainwater out lest we drown,� he added. �Our rooms are not spared when there is a downpour depriving us sleep because it leaks badly,� he lamented. �We scoop buckets of flood water with our children anytime it rains. Is this the price we are supposed to pay for service to the nation,� he quizzed. Worryingly, the 11 personnel and the families use one toilet facility but �anytime it rains we cannot use it. The rains submerge it at the least fall.� Aside that the bathhouse the police use has become a bone of contention between them and residents as the water from the bathhouse exudes a bad smell in the neighbourhood. Checks by the paper reveal that the chiefs and people of Asuom have donated a parcel of land for a modern police post, but, the lack of funds have made the land to lie fallow.