Kumasi to build GH₵4.8m divisional police headquarters as ABOA gives GH₵200,000

Pinned summary · as of 06:02

A new divisional police headquarters costing GH₵4.8 million is planned for the Central Business District of Kumasi, with the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) driving the works. The Ashanti Business Owners Association (ABOA) has already handed over GH₵200,000 to help relocate the officers who work in the ageing buildings that are due to come down.

What we know

• The KMA is leading construction of a Central Divisional Police Headquarters in Kumasi's Central Business District, a project priced at GH₵4.8 million and paid for by the central government.
• The new building will take the place of the cramped offices now used by the Ashanti Central Division, which operates nine offices and has too few cells. Its design includes six holding cells.
• Mr Boadi, the KMA official who presented the plan, said suspects will be held apart by category. MyJoyOnline quoted him as promising separate cells for juveniles, women and hardened criminals, while Onua Online said the split would follow gender, age and seriousness of offence.
• ABOA gave GH₵200,000 to pay for relocating police staff whose offices will be pulled down to clear the site.
• Charles Kusi Appiah Kubi, ABOA's Executive Secretary, argued that safety is the base on which development rests and that firms gain when they put money into security.
• The KMA plans to set up a Metropolitan Police Unit devoted to crime in the Central Business District.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  The two reports name the KMA official differently. Onua Online calls him Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi, the Assembly's Chief Executive Officer, while MyJoyOnline calls him Kwasi Ofori Agyemang Boadi, the Mayor of Kumasi.
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  Figures for the temporary offices do not match. MyJoyOnline said the twelve-office temporary building is estimated at GH₵750,000, outside the main budget, with GH₵210,000 raised so far. Onua Online described GH₵750,000 as the cost of the whole project and put total funds mobilised at GH₵410,000, with GH₵340,000 still needed.
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  Only MyJoyOnline reported that the headquarters will have three storeys, and only Onua Online reported that it will replace nine pre-colonial offices at the Central Police Station. Neither detail has been confirmed by the other report.
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  Onua Online reported that Mr Boadi said the old offices would be pulled down and work would start once the Assembly finds the last GH₵340,000. He also said he would lobby for a dedicated Kumasi police unit patterned on the way London polices its city. Other reports have not confirmed these points.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that the Assembly is appealing to corporate bodies and philanthropists for the temporary facility and that ABOA pledged to help clean up the Central Business District. This has not been confirmed by other reports.

Why it matters for Ghana

Police officers in central Kumasi work from crowded premises, and suspects are sometimes moved to cells in Sofoline and Asokwa, according to Onua Online. Separate cells for women and juveniles would matter to families of people in custody. The funding gap for temporary offices could hold up the demolition, so the timing of the new headquarters for Kumasi residents and traders depends on donations.