IGP breached law by accepting resignation of wife of Mfantseman MP – Ex-Commander

Superintendent Naa Hamza Yakubu, a former Commander of the Formed Police Unit (FPU) of the Ghana Police Service, has said the Inspector General of Police (IGP) breached the Police Act by accepting the resignation letter of the wife of the murdered Member of Parliament for Mfantseman Constituency, Ophelia Hayford, when she failed to give the mandatory 30 days’ notice.

The governing New Partition party (NPP) has settled on Ophelia Hayford, a police officer, to replace her husband Ekow Kwansah Hayford, who was killed by suspected armed robbers on Friday, October 9, in the December 7 parliamentary elections.

The senior police officer is reported to have accordingly tendered her resignation to the IGP.

But concerns are that the IGP has acted ultra vires by accepting the letter and allowing her to join a political party.

This comes after Section 113(1) of the Police Service Regulations CI 76 says an officer who wishes to resign from the service shall give 30 days’ notice in writing to the Inspector General of Police of the intention to resign.

Since Madam Ophelia’s resignation had not reached the 30 days’ notice she could not have been granted the permit by the IGP to enable her replace her husband in the polls, the former commander argued.

Asked what he makes of this development while speaking in an interview with 3FM’ s Nana Akua Mensah-Aborampah, Supt. Hamza Yakubu said this is a violation of the law and would wish to challenge the IGP‘s decision in court.

“I haven’t seen anywhere in the Act where the IGP has the discretionary power. The operative word is shall give. Once that is there, it means there is nothing he can do than to comply with this act,” he said.

He added: “The situation makes it a little bit crazy and dicey because it has to do with politics.

“It is a stated fact that Police officers as public servants are barred from doing active politics, so what is that will compel a police officer to, on the spur of the moment, say I am resigning to go and do politics and that is a reasonable excuse enough to grant the go-ahead.

“For me, the IGP has clearly breached the regulation and I wish we are in a position to go and challenge it in a court of law.”