A Police Lance Corporal, James Asante has filed a suit at an Accra High Court (Human Rights Division) against the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Attorney General’s Department over what he described as unlawful dismissal.
According to Mr. Asante, before his dismissal, he was a serving officer attached to the Panthers Unit at the Headquarters of the Ghana Police Service in Accra until November 26, 2009 when he was unfairly dismissed.
He said he had made many attempts, including appeals to the legal department of the service and petitions to the Police Service for redress, but nobody is minding him.
In a suit filed on June 17, 2015 at the Accra High Court against the IGP and the Attorney General, Mr. Asante claimed his dismissal was unfair, unjustifiable and dishonorable.
In his statement of claim, Mr. Asante is requesting the court to grant him the following: an order that the said dismissal was unlawful, capricious and against the Constitutional fundamental rights of natural justice; an order that the removal from the service is a breach of Article 23, 190(1) (a) and 191(a) and (b) and Article 296 of the 1992 Constitution; that the unlawful removal is also a breach of the Police Service Act, 1974 (Act 350) as well as Police Service (Disciplinary Proceedings) Regulations, 1974 (L.I 993) which was then in force; an order to be re-instated into the service with immediate effect; an order for payments of all salary arrears due with interest at the prevailing commercial bank rate from November 26, 2009 till date together with various increments and bonuses that he may be entitled to, and legal fees and cost.
In an interview with the Daily Heritage, Mr. Asante said he was enlisted into the Ghana Police Service in 2003 and was attached to the Mobile Force Unit in Accra near the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority office.
He said after two years of service and in 2005, he was attached to the Panthers Unit where he worked until Thursday November 26, 2009 when he was unlawfully dismissed from the service.
Mr. Asante added that on the said date, in the company of three other officers, his Unit Commander, the then DSP Francis K. Somian in the evening confronted him and asked him to join the service vehicle to his office without any reason.
“I was surprised that, my unit commander instead took me to the Police Headquarters and handed me over to one senior officer alleging that I had deserted my post as a police officer and never attended to duties though I was always on duty.
“I was terrified and shocked when the said senior officer asked my unit commander to go with me and retrieve my uniforms which he did as commanded,” he said.
Mr. Asante stated that after the incident, “my unit commander took me back to the Panther’s Unit and made entries in the station’s diary and asked me to go home because I am no more a police officer.”
He added that, when the month ended I did not receive my salary so I made a complaint to the Legal Department of the Ghana Police Service, following it with an appeal filed on August 16, 2010, but they have not yielded any results.
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