Mills Probes Kofi Boakye

The ordeal of former Director of Police Operations, ACP Nathan Kofi Boakye, is not completely over even after his reinstatement into the Ghana Police Service, as President John Evans Atta Mills orders a service enquiry into his conduct over the MV Benjamin missing cocaine saga. President Mills� order for the procedure was based on the advice of the Police Service Council which is chaired by Vice President John Dramani Mahama, after a two-day marathon meeting. The council was said to have revealed the circumstances that led to the interdiction of the senior officer and arrived at the conclusion that he should be investigated further over the MV Benjamin cocaine saga, in line with recommendations of the Georgina Wood Committee. According to the Interior Minister and a member of the Council, Cletus Avoka, the service enquiry of the former Accra Regional Police Commander would take the form of a court martial as it is called in the military, with the officer being matched to the probe committee by police personnel. The Police Council met a few days ago in a marathon session, deliberating the fate of the man considered the most flamboyant and media-covered police officer in recent times. Yesterday, ACP Kofi Boakye reported to his new unit, headquarters of the Police Education Unit, housed within the National Police Training School, otherwise known as Depot, Tesano, Accra, at 9.00am. He was taken through his new schedule by the Director of Education, ACP Agyeman, where his office was shown to him. Apparently unaware that such a �big man� was being sent to the place, the authorities of the facility did not make any prior arrangement to accommodate such a senior officer until after the Police Council took the last minute decision to send him to what is considered in Police circles as Siberia. Finishing touches were being put to his new office as at the time ACP Boakye, immaculately dressed in a pair of suit and pair of footwear to match, got there. The Education Unit of the Police Service oversees the running of the basic schools strewn across the country belonging to the Service. The basic schools provide education for children of police personnel and usually headed by an Assistant Commissioner. A Police source told DAILY GUIDE that the headship of the unit is usually reserved for officers who are under one form of investigation or the other, as in the case Kofi Boakye�s Service Enquiry procedure. Put bluntly, the headship of the Education Unit is a form of Siberia in the Police Service; the security authorities might dispute it though. A statement signed by Mrs. Zita Okaikoi, Minister of Information, contained the detail that the officer who had for long been in limbo, is now recalled from leave by the President, acting on the advice of the Police Council even as a Service Enquiry is also ordered. The Georgina Wood Committee that probed the MV Benjamin missing cocaine ordered by former President John Agyekum Kufuor considered the possible abuse of office, corruption, professional misconduct and unsatisfactory service on the part of the officer. This followed the mysterious loss of 77 parcels of cocaine and a subsequent meeting between some suspects at the residence of the officer. President Mills� decision was based on the advice of the Police Council, the minister�s statement said. �Council took note of the findings of abuse of abuse of office, corruption, professional misconduct and unsatisfactory service,� it added. The Georgina Wood Committee of 2006 report, according to the statement, had raised a number of issues which adversely affected the image and integrity of the Police Service and the country as a whole. This, it went on, informed the decision by the President to order a Service Enquiry into the conduct of ACP Kofi Boakye. Discipline and due process of law in the Police Service are regulated by the Police Service Act 350 of 1970 and the Police Service (Discipline) Regulations 1974, L.I. 993. Personnel suspected of misconducting themselves professionally face such service enquiries to authenticate the mis-demeanour and recommend punitive action appropriately. Kofi Boakye�s case made the headlines when it broke, given the spectacular tenure of the man when he headed the Greater Accra Regional Command of the Police. The tenure was punctuated with numerous escapades, some fatal, by notorious armed robbers, one of them, Atta Aryee who was eventually nabbed amidst a media blitz. His outstanding performance at the Ghana Law School hit the headlines, especially when he bagged a number of prizes as in Criminal Law. Interestingly, the incoming Mills Administration kicked against the last minute reinstatement of Kofi Boakye by former President Kufuor, considering it unusual. Some observers consider the Mills Administrations� action alongside the Service Enquiry as resulting from a certain external pressure too overwhelming for the Commander-In-Chief to resist. The Interior Minister, Cletus Avoka, has said that whenever ACP Kofi Boakye is needed to make an appearance before the board of enquiry which is like a court-martial, he would shed his uniform and march to and fro, as convention demands. The ordeal of Kofi Boakye is after all not over, considering the countless appearances that he is going to make before the board and the period that he is going to wait for the final verdict.