'Take your case to court '

The Sole Commissioner of the Judgement Debt Commission, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, has advised a Deputy Superintendent of Police, Mr Emmanuel Yaw Blessie, who was wrongfully dismissed from the police service in 1983, to take up the matter in court.

He gave the advice when Mr Blessie appeared before the commission in Accra yesterday to explain a petition he presented to it regarding his entitlements.

According to the petitioner, the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) had recommended that he should be paid his entitlements after his dismissal but nothing had been done to that effect.

He told the commission that he had not gone to court over the matter because he did not have money.

But Justice Apau said it would be better if the petitioner took the matter to court.

“I think it would be better you take the matter up in the court…I think the National Reconciliation Commission was not established for nothing.It was established for a purpose and if the commission had made recommendations, the recommendations must be complied with by the state institutions,” he said.

Justice Apau said the commission would also advise the Attorney General on the matter to prevent the situation where a judgement debt could arise out of it.

Presenting his case at the commission, Mr Blessie, 77, said he was the Regional Crime Officer in the Upper West Region in 1983, when he heard on radio that he and some police officers had been dismissed from the police service.

“I was not told any reason why I was sacked,” he said, adding that about three days later military officers went to pick him at dawn and transferred him to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) headquarters in Accra.

Later, he was taken to the Accra Regional BNI headquarters and then to the Ussher Fort Prison where he spent two-and-a-half years.

When he was asked by counsel for the commission, Mr Dometi Kofi Sokpor, whether he was given a letter of dismissal, Mr Blessie responded in the negative.

Asked again how he came out of prison, he said, “we were there when Amnesty International filed a habeas corpus for our release”.

National Reconciliation Commission

Mr Blessie explained that when the NRC was set up he appeared at the commission, which later recommended to the Inspector General of Police that he (Mr Blessie) be reinstated, promoted to the position of a Superintendent and retired with all his benefits paid.

“Up to date nothing has happened. I have gone to the IGP (then Patrick Acheampong) several times but I was not told anything,” he said.

He said he informed the Attorney General’s Department after the NRC’s recommendation.

Enlistment

Mr Blessie was enlisted into the Ghana Police Service on May 31, 1961. He rose through the ranks and entered the Ghana Police College in 1978, after which he was commissioned as an Assistant Superintendent of Police.

After that he served in the Volta and Eastern regions respectively as crime officer.

In 1983, when the Upper West Region was created he was posted to that region as the first crime officer.

Sitting was adjourned to August 12, 2013.

By Emmanuel Bonney & Miriam Schirme/Daily Graphic/Ghana