Lack of police response results in judgement debts

IGP Mohammed AlhassanIGP Mohammed AlhassanThe failure of the Police Administration to respond to queries from the Attorney-General’s (A-G’s) Department on acts of brutality and molestation committed by some policemen and women has resulted in the state paying huge judgement debts.

Responses from the police are required to enable the A-G’s department to put up defences in suits brought against the state.

However, as a result of the lack of those responses and comments from the police for a strong defence, petitioners get default judgements and the A-G’s department is forced to negotiate for settlements which the state has to pay.

This came up yesterday when a Principal State Attorney, Mrs Stella Badu, appeared before the Commission on Judgement Debts to provide certain files related to police molestations and brutalities for the periods 2008, 2009 and 2011, as captured in the Auditor-General’s report for those periods.

She produced eight files in relation to the cases regarding the police, in addition to the ones already produced, and indicated that more were to be provided.

When the Sole Commissioner, Mr Justice Yaw Apau, put it to her that all the judgement cases entered by the courts were default judgements, she responded in the affirmative.

Asked what accounted for that, she said sometimes it was due to the failure of the police to provide comments.

On what the A-G’s Department did when it received no comments from the police in such cases, she said State Attorneys kept sending reminders.

Mrs Badu said sometimes too, state attorneys moved and “liaised with the Head of the Legal Department of the Police Service, and then he would give us to whoever is in charge”.

But Justice Apau said it was becoming a habit that no physical contacts were made when the A-G’s department did not receive any comments from the police or the state institution that had been sued.

He also raised issues about the lack of proper identification of police personnel said to have engaged in various acts leading to the payment of judgement debts.

“When you look at some of the titles of the cases of policemen who might have caused those tortuous acts, you see the names are not so clear… so so and so against George, Ghana Police. There could be 1,000 Georges in the Ghana Police Service.

“Some of these things may not be clear and the police officers too would find it even difficult to trace the type of George, taking the case of transfers in the system,” he said.

Mrs Badu admitted that the scenario created by Justice Apau could also be the problem.

Justice Apau said Ghanaians knew about the payment of a huge judgement debt to Woyome, “but these ones appear smaller in comparison but they are numerous and when you put them together, they might even be greater than the Woyome’s we all cry about”.

“They all fall under indiscretion by state officials,” he said.

By Emmanuel Bonney/Daily Graphic/Ghana


Newer news items:

Older news items: