A security policy expert at the Centre for Security Dialogue and Peace Advocacy, Mr. Anthony Acquaye, commended the police service for its proactive approach to interdicting three senior police officers who have been implicated in a leaked tape that seeks to topple IGP Dr. George Akufo Dampare, the Inspector General of Police.
According to Mr. Acquaye, the interdiction of COP George Alex Mensah, including Superintendent George Asare and Emmanuel Gyebi, was long overdue. This internal action by the Ghana Police Service should have been the first point of action to have been carried out immediately by the Ghana Police Service as soon as the tape was leaked.
Nevertheless, the strategic move by the institution to allow the officers involved in the leaked tape to first appear before the parliamentary committee to inform its decision to interdict them is in the right order.
Even though the parliamentary committee has not completed its investigation, and just like the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) carried out its internal investigation, nothing stops the Police Service from using its internal administrative mechanism to explore different solutions to the problem at hand and, to a greater extent, ensure law and order as mandated by the 1992 constitution, supported by Act 1970 (Act 350) and its institutional regulation 2012 C.I. 76.
Once these three officers have been interdicted, the next action is to referee them to service enquiry. If found guilty of the grounds on which they were interdicted, punishment or the necessary disciplinary actions can be carried out against them.
Whether the officers interdicted appear before any of the disciplinary authorities in Police Service Regulation C.I.76, be it the President, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), or the Central Disciplinary Board, is a serious matter of concern, since in the case of the IGP’s authority, it must be seen as a conflict of interest, as his name has been mentioned, allegedly as the custodian of the original tape. Again, in the case of the Central Disciplinary Board under the authority of the Deputy Inspector General of Police, which, on record, the Ghana Police Service does not have,
The whole conflict must seem complicated and destructive or negative to the image of the Ghana Police Service, but, from my expert viewpoint, the destructive or constructive determination of this emerging conflict will importantly depend on how it is handled.
