IGP Fights Contempt Case

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday October 14, 2011.
There were fireworks at the Fast Track Court 1 yesterday when Justice Edward Amoako Asante ruled that lawyers representing police administration could go ahead to move a motion seeking to set aside the court’s order to re-instate 24 police officers who were arbitrarily dismissed from the service.

On Tuesday when Anthony Kukruku and DCOP Ken Yeboah representing the IGP tried to move the motion, J.K. Yeboah, counsel for the 24 policemen raised preliminary legal objection to the entire application forcing the court to adjourn for ruling yesterday.

The court on October 2010, ordered the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to re-instate the 24 policemen, pay all entitlements due them including salaries and allowances from the date of their unlawful dismissal.

As a result, another Fast Track High Court presided over by Justice Denise Agyei of the Court of Appeal could not hear the contempt application brought against the IGP by the affected policemen for refusing to re-instate them.

The court adjourned the proceedings until October 17 to await the outcome of the application filed by the police administration to set aside order to re-instate the 24 policemen.

Moving the motion to set aside the order of certiorari by the court, Mr. Kukruku, counsel for the police administration said the Attorney-General ought to have been joined in the whole action initiated by the affected soldiers.

He said once Article 88 (5) of the 1992 Constitution prescribed that the Attorney-General as an advisor of the government should be joined in suits such as this and the petitioners had decided to exclude such a vital provision the order of certiorari earlier granted by the court to re-instate the 24 policemen should be declared void.

“Since it is void, the court has inherent jurisdiction to set aside the order of certiorari to re-instate the policemen and their salaries paid and promoted.”

Mr. Kukruku said the police administration had acted on behalf of the state and therefore the Attorney-General should have been the body to be sued by the petitioners.

“The processes used in securing the order of certiorari constituted procedural impropriety and it should be set aside by this court.”

Responding to the police administration’s submission, J.K. Yeboah argued that the Ghana Police Service is a creation of statute (Act 350) and that makes it a legal entity whose actions and inactions can be questioned without reference to the Attorney-General.

“The argument that the petitioners ought to have joined the AG to the action is not applicable in the instant case because where Article 88 (5) enjoins the AG to be part is a situation where that institution is not the creation of a statute.”

He argued that the action of the police is an administrative action and there was no need to join the Attorney-General in the suit simply because the petitioners were already using the government advisor’s authority to question action of the police.

“The application is misconceived because we did not come to court under Chapter 5 of the 1992 Constitution for the enforcement of our rights but rather we came here under Order 55 of CI 47 of 2004 which gives the power to anybody who is aggrieved to invoke the supervisory powers of the court.”

Mr. Yeboah said the non-joiner of the Attorney-General did not take away the jurisdiction of the court to make an order of certiorari to re-instate the 24 policemen.

Earlier in allowing the respondent applicant (IGP) to move the motion to set aside the certiorari order, Justice Amoako Asante has held that the contempt proceedings initiated against the IGP had not been determined and the court had the right to hear the motion since there has not been any conviction.

The ruling of the matter was fixed for October 27.

On April 13, 2007, the police administration announced the dismissal of 24 policemen after a Police Enquiry established that they misconducted themselves by allowing the media to cover the bad accommodation problems facing them at the Police Barrack Depot in Accra.

The affected policemen, who were not given a fair hearing at the Police Enquiry sitting, challenged the decision to dismiss them and won the case but the police administration blatantly refused to re-instate them as directed by the court leading to the filing of contempt proceedings against the IGP.