The leader of the Alliance for the Restoration of Civil Rights (ARCR), William Kofi Yirenkyi, has initiated a landmark judicial review and mandamus application against the Ghana Police Service (GPS) and the Right to Information Commission (RTIC).
The case, filed at the High Court (General Jurisdiction Division) in Accra, seeks to compel the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to release specific investigative and suspect reports which Yirenkyi says have been unlawfully withheld for over a year despite multiple directives from the RTIC.
Filed under Articles 23 and 141 of the 1992 Constitution and Order 55 of C.I. 47, the motion for judicial review challenges what Yirenkyi describes as the “unlawful conduct and administrative failures” of both the Police Service and the RTI Commission.
The application, dated October 28, 2025, and sworn to by Yirenkyi, requests the High Court to issue an order of mandamus compelling the IGP to release full investigative and suspect reports related to two criminal cases in which he was involved: The Republic v. William Kofi Yirenkyi, Masawud Saeed (also known as D.M.X.), and Rashid Haruna (also known as Godson), and The Republic v. Masawud Saeed, Musah Hussein, Umar Nuhu, Rashid Haruna, Augustine Agornyor, and Christian Atsu.
Leader of Alliance for Restoration Right accuses police of disobeying RTI orders in release of criminal information
According to the affidavit in support of the application, Yirenkyi first requested the documents from the Ghana Police Service on October 30, 2024, but received no response.
Following the lack of feedback, he petitioned the Right to Information Commission on November 25, 2024, for intervention.
The RTI Commission subsequently wrote to the Ghana Police Service on December 13, 2024, directing the Service to provide the requested documents to assist in its investigation.
The Police Service responded in January 2025, submitting some documents to the Commission.
Upon review, the Commission determined on January 31, 2025, that the information sought did not fall under the category of exempt information under the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989). It therefore directed the Police Service to release the documents to Yirenkyi within five days — a directive that was ignored.
A follow-up directive on April 9, 2025, was also disregarded by the Police Service, prompting the latest court action.
In a Facebook post on November 6, 2025, Yirenkyi announced the filing of the case, accusing the Police Service and the RTIC of “continuous violation” of his constitutional rights to information and fair administrative justice.
He recounted that after his initial request in February 2024, the Police Service refused to release the investigative report, forcing him to file a denial review with the RTIC. Although the Commission ruled in his favour and ordered the IGP to release the report, the directive went unheeded.
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In September 2024, Yirenkyi organised a peaceful protest to highlight what he described as the Police’s disregard for the RTI law. This action, he said, prompted the then Director-General of Administration and now Inspector-General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohonu, to release a partial report dated May 23, 2024.
He described the report as “riddled with falsehoods and contradictions,” claiming it admitted that officers had “compounded a crime” by allowing suspects to settle the matter privately instead of pursuing prosecution.
Following further RTIC intervention, the Commission instructed Yirenkyi to contact a CID officer, DCI Mathias Awudi, to collect the full report.
However, on November 13, 2024, when he complied with this directive, Yirenkyi alleges he was arbitrarily arrested and detained for three days before the case was taken to court. The case, originally recorded as armed robbery and assault, was later reclassified as a “mere fight” and subsequently dismissed.
In a series of subsequent petitions, Yirenkyi accused the RTI Commission of mishandling the case. He claimed the Commission initiated Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) sessions with the Police without his participation and, based on Police claims that he had not paid access fees, closed three of his pending cases against the Police Service.
Yirenkyi insists that the claim was false, as he had already made the required payments — the same payments upon which the partial report had been released earlier. “To eliminate any doubt,” he said, “I even made an additional payment.” Despite this, the full report was never released.
“This case before the High Court is about more than a personal grievance,” Yirenkyi said in his Facebook statement.
“It is about protecting constitutional rights and ensuring accountability. The law must serve the people, not shield public institutions from scrutiny. No one is above the Constitution, and this case seeks to remind our institutions of that truth.”
The case is being handled by lawyer Martin Kpebu of Star Legal Services PRUC, representing Yirenkyi. The applicant is asking the court to compel the Ghana Police Service to release the full investigative and suspect reports, declare the refusal to comply with the RTIC’s directives as unlawful and unconstitutional, and grant any further orders deemed fit to ensure enforcement of his right to information and administrative justice.
ID/BAI
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