Judgement Debt Hangs Over Police

The 17 police personnel who were re-instated on the orders of a Fast Track High Court in Accra, have threatened to go back to court to place an embargo on the accounts of the Police Administration. This follows the refusal of the police hierarchy to comply with the court orders and pay their salary arrears and allowances due them from 2007, the year of their dismissal, to 2010, when they were reinstated. Mr. Joseph Kofi Yeboah, lawyer of the 17 police officers, told the Judgement Debt Commission yesterday that the Police Administration was in a feeling of inertia and needed only �legal whip� to keep it in line. �My Lord, all the relevant letters I have written to remind them of the court order in respect of the payment of my clients� salary arrears and allowances, have fallen on deaf ears: �The only option left for me is to go back to the court to institute measures that would compel the Police Administration to respect and obey the laws of the land,� he said in anger. But the Sole Commissioner, Mr. Justice Yaw Apau, appealed to Mr. Yeboah (counsel for the police personnel) not to go yo court since any further legal action could result in the payment of judgement debt, by the state. �Why should someone�s ineptitude make the state suffer? If our action is to make the state pay unnecessary judgement debts, then how can we ask for pay increase when we have allowed money that could have been protected to go waste,� he questioned. Mr. Justice Apue, therefore, ordered the Police Administration to appear before the Commission on Wednesday, November 6, to explain why it had defied the court order. The affected police personnel who were wrongfully dismissed in 2007, took the matter to an Accra Fast Truck High Court and by certiorari, the court quashed the case in 2010 and ordered the reinstatement of the victims as well as the payment of salary arrears and allowances due them from the period of dismissal (2007) to the year of reinstatement (2010) which the Police Administration failed to comply, hence the appearance of the lawyer at the Commission to seek another redress. Sitting was adjourned to Wednesday, November 6, for continuation.