Row over New promotions in police service

A few days after President Atta Mills announced the promotion of some six Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCOP) to Commissioner of Police (COP), The Chronicle has gathered that there is an uneasy calm at the helm of the police administration over the exclusion of five other accomplished officers.

The five DCOPs who were excluded from the list are DCOP David Asante-Apeatu, third in command after the Inspector General of Police; Mr. Stephen Andoh Kwofie, the Central Regional Commander; Mr. James Boanuh, Police Commissioner to the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID); Mr. Frank Adu-Poku, Director of Services and Mr. Patrick Timbillah, Ashanti Regional Commander.

On Friday, January 13, this year, there was a police wireless message from the IGP to all Regional, Divisional, District and Unit Commanders to inform them that 'His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana has on the recommendation of the Police Council approved the promotions of the under mentioned Deputy Commissioners of Police to the rank of Commissioner of Police with effect from 1 st January 2012.

Ofosu-Mensah Gyeabour, Director-General in Charge of Technical Services, Rose Bio Atinga, Accra Regional Commander, Dr. Peter Alex Wiredu, Acting Director of Ghana Immigration Service, Mr. John Kudalor, Director General Operations, Mr. Hamidu Mahama, Director General of Human Resource and Mr. Prosper Kwame Agblor, the Director-General of Criminal Investigations Department.'

What has also raised the tension in the service is that some officers have not received promotion since 2002, although under the policy of the service (maximum), a police officer must be promoted every four years.

Mr. Asante-Apeatu received his last promotion of DCOP in 2002 within the 10 years period he was the Director General of the Criminal Investigations Department and was subsequently appointed Director of the Specialized Crime and Analysis (SCA) Unit at the INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon, France.

Mr. David Asante-Apeatu's mandate covered Drugs and Criminal Organizations, Financial and High-tech Crime, Public Safety and Terrorism, Trafficking in Human Beings, and Criminal Analysis.

Mr. Asante-Apeatu and two others have been appointed directors to key roles within INTERPOL's Executive Directorate for Police Services (EDPS), which was announced at the General Secretariat on Monday.

DCOP Asante-Apeatu is a Masters' degree holder in Chemistry from the Kharkov State University in Russia and a trained Forensic Scientist in various disciplines such as Document Examination, Firearms and Ballistics, and Controlled Drug Analysis.

He is a Government of Ghana gazetted Firearms Examiner and also a gazetted Controlled Drug Analyst.

Internationally, he has worked at the Sarajevo Police Academy as an Instructor in Human Dignity, Police Ethics and Criminal Investigations under the auspices of the United Nations Task Force in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1997 to 1998.

He was the team leader in a successful homicide investigation under the request of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNAMIL).

He is the team leader in the ongoing investigations into the mass murder of more than 50 people, mostly West African nationals, in The Gambia.

DCOP Asante-Apeatu was the Lead Investigator in the serial killing of more than 30 women that led to the arrest of a culprit who had been prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death.

Under the supervision of Mr. Asante-Apeatu and based on intelligence, the CID successfully conducted an operation that resulted in the seizure of 588 kilogrammes of cocaine with the street value of about $38 million.

Mr. Oppong-Boanuh on the other hand was last promoted to the rank of DCOP in 2006. He has under his sleeves extensive professional policing and managerial skills, United Nations experience and knowledge of the Darfur mission from its formative stages.

He has worked in the United Nations Mission in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) in 1994 and with the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET) from 2001 to 2002.