Court Throws Out Application Against Deputy IGP Appointment

A High Court in Accra has thrown out an application against Commissioner of Police (COP) Christian Tetteh Yohuno’s appointment as the Deputy Inspector General of Police (IGP).

This is after a private citizen had gone to court over the contention that under the laws of Ghana, there was no appointment as deputy IGP in charge of operations.

Emmanuel Felix Mantey, a private citizen and a lecturer, who commenced the action, held that the President and the Police Council were perpetuating illegality in that appointment.

Mantey in an ex-parte application sued the Attorney General, the Police Council and the COP Christina Tetteh Yohuno, but lawyers for the Police Council and COP Yohuno raised a preliminary objection saying the applicant’s action was instituted in the wrong forum and in contravention of Article 2(1) and 130 (1) of the 1992 Constitution.

Lawyers for the two respondents held that the jurisdiction of the High Court was wrongly invoked by the applicant.

The court was, therefore, called to resolve issues on whether the jurisdiction of the court had been properly invoked before it considered the application.

The court presided over by Justice Richard Apietu, following preliminary legal objection, ruled that the President acted in accordance with his administrative functions and not that of a judicial one.

“The President was performing his administrative function and not exercising adjudicatory powers when he appointed COP Yohuno (the third respondent) as deputy IGP, therefore Article 141 of the 1992 Constitution and Section 16 of Act 459 are not the appropriate statutory provisions to be invoked against him.”

According to the court, the proper provisions the applicant should have come under to properly invoke the jurisdiction of the court in this matter was Article 23. The court held that the applicant lacked the authority to intervene in the said appointment and that he failed to properly invoke the supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court hence dismissed same.

President Akufo Addo in July 2024, based on the advice of the Police Council, appointed COP Yohuno as the Deputy IGP in charge of Operations.

Source: GNA