Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Dr. Benjamin Agordzo, has explained why the leadership of Ghana’s internal security agencies, including the Ghana Police Service, often changes whenever there is a change in government.
According to him, what most Ghanaians do not know is that it is the heads of these security agencies who approach newly-elected presidents and ask to be removed.
He explained that IGPs and heads of other security agencies fear they will not be trusted by the new governments and so opt to step down, 3news.com reports.
He added that he knows two IGPs, for instance, who asked to be removed after a change in government.
“I admit that there are dangers, of course, there are dangers associated with this. But when you look at it critically, it is difficult for somebody who has been appointed by a previous government to work with another government, especially in this current dispensation.
“I have seen and know at the police headquarters where [a] previous IGP [Inspector General of Police] has gone to [the] newly elected president and told him that he wants to go; at least I know two,” ACP Agordzo is quoted to have said.
He added, “Because, once there is a new president and you were appointed by the previous president, you cannot be trusted, and because you cannot be trusted, there is no way you can work effectively in the new government.”
The retired police officer made these remarks while reacting to a suit filed in the Supreme Court by IMANI Africa and Prof. Kwesi Aning challenging President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s power to fire the heads of Ghana’s internal security agencies, including the Chief Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service, the Inspector General of Police, the Director-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, and the Comptroller General of the Immigration Service.
The plaintiffs are seeking that the Supreme Court interpret the sections of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana that border on the appointment of the heads of the security agencies, including Articles 200, 202(1), 202(2), 202(3), 205, 207 (1), 207(2), 207(3), 190(1), 191, 196, 199, and 296 of the constitution.
