Security Experts commenting on Removal of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP)

Three security experts commenting on the recent removal of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), David Asante-Apeatu, from office have given a similar verdict: it was unprofessional.

Col Festus Boahen Aboagye (retd), Adam Bonaa and Paul Avuyi said on PM Express Tuesday that David Asante-Apeatu’s sudden removal was poorly managed and bad for the police administration.

President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Monday directed Mr Asante-Apeatu to proceed on leave with immediate effect, pending his retirement from the police service on Wednesday, August 14, 2019.

He also asked the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, to act as IGP until a substantive IGP is appointed.

On MultiTV’s PM Express, Mr Paul Avuyi, a former police chief, was the first point out the anomaly in Mr Asante-Apeatu’s removal, stating that for him, “the curiosity in the whole thing is that he [Mr Asante-Apeatu] had only four weeks’ extension of service to end and then he was asked to proceed on leave.”

The norm, he revealed, was that when a top police chief was due to retire, he was given a notice for at least a year and during that period, a notice will officially indicate when the terminal leave begins.

Adam Bonaa, CEO of Security Warehouse, also said on the show that he thinks Mr Asante-Apeatu was chased out of office.

“If you have an IGP whom you have asked to serve, you have given an extension to for two years and you call him one morning and tell him that, with immediate effect, he should leave the office. So he drives the GP1 in the morning and in the afternoon, by 1 O’clock he is no more. No dispatch rider in front of him. It doesn’t happen that way,” he said.

Col Aboagye (retd) said the sudden removal of Mr Asante-Apeatu was unprecedented and it deserves all the attention it can get to send a strong message to the power brokers.

“Granted that the President has the prerogative to appoint and then to release, I think the office of the IGP should be entitled to some considerable amount of respect...it is not only about the IGP that should not be treated that way, but it is also about the entire service – the image within the public sphere.

“And granted that this gentleman has served his country for around 30 years, for him to be released under these circumstances, for reasons that nobody seems to know…I don’t it is the way we should treat very senior officers,” he told show host Evans Mensah.