Dismissed Police Officer Cries Foul

... Allegation of Armed Robbery Links

The Police Administration has finally sacked a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP), Mr. Yaw Adu Gyimah, from the service. A letter to that effect, PSO 969/V2/160, was dated December 9, 2002 and signed by the deputy Inspector-General-Administration, Mrs. E. Mills-Robertson, for the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

Headlined ''Allegation Against Mr. Yaw Adu Gyimah, Deputy Commissioner of Police'' it reads, ''I am directed by the Police Council to inform you that His Excellency the President has on the advice of the Police Council, directed that you should be removed from the Ghana Police Service with effect from 16/10/02.''

Earlier on October 8, 2001, deputy Commissioner/Administration, Kwasi Nkansah, in a letter with reference PSO.969/V.2/80 said, ''I am directed to inform you that serious allegations of misconduct have been made against you.

The Inspector-General of Police has therefore directed your immediate interdiction from duty pending the outcome of a special investigation into the allegations. You are accordingly to hand over to the 2i/c/CR while you proceed on your interdiction.''

Our investigations revealed that following this, a three-member committee was constituted to investigate series of allegations leveled against DCOP Yaw Adu Gyimah, former police operations commander and later Central regional police commander and ASP H. A. Yakubu, former Buffalo Unit commander and later Apam district police boss.

Members of the committee were Mr. J. B. Amofa, deputy Commissioner, Monitoring and Inspection Unit, chairman; Mr. J. J. Yidana, Ministry of the Interior, member and Mr. D. Ntiamoah, National Security member.

Background to the investigation was that the Minister of the Interior on October 8, 2001 addressed a letter to the IGP and stated that intelligence information had disclosed that Yaw Adu Gyimah had established a gigantic corrupt syndicate in the Ashanti region with Henry Yakubu as the linkman and the criminal gangs.

The letter further stated that the Ashanti regional director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) ordered his men to infiltrate the criminal gangs in the region, and in the course, it was detected that Yaw Adu Gyimah gave cover to the operations of most of the armed gangs in the region. He did this by diverting police operations from the real targets to wrong ones; also his prior knowledge of the operations of the criminal gangs enabled them to act in a way that aborted police countermeasures.

He was alleged to have alerted gangsters of how dangerous one of their aggrieved members was when the group compensated him with a car, sold to him very cheaply, after his brother died in one of their operations.

The gangsters reportedly went back for the car without refunding the money involved. The gang later wanted to kill their late colleague’s brother. Adu Gyimah was also alleged to have used his classmate at the university as a conduit to receive bribes, and a Cherokee Jeep with registration number GT 1000 A in his possession was alleged to have been seized from armed robbers.

The committee called 33 witnesses, including former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Peter Nanfuri, and finally adduced that no evidence to show that either DCOP, Mr. Adu Gyimah or ASP Henry Yakubu gave cover to criminal gangs by diverting police operations from the real target of criminal activities. Also found by the committee was that neither the brother of the deceased gangster, nor the man who infiltrated into the gangs, could be traced and therefore the allegation that Adu Gyimah warned the armed gang that the man was dangerous could not be proved.

When DCOP, Adu Gyimah was contacted after we laid hands on the 50-page report compiled by the committee, he stated that he believed they were not being fair to him.

According to Adu Gyimah, popularly known among police personnel as Castro, at the time he was being investigated by the disciplinary board, he was a witness and that if adverse findings had been established against him, the proper thing was to put him before court but not to remove him on the quiet.

He went on to say that from information reaching him some people had decided to use him to settle personal scores. He accused a member of the three-man committee of displaying bias against him because his yet to be buried late uncle, former Forces Sergeant-Major WO 1 Isaac Frimpong, was close to the former President, Jerry John Rawlings, and that he ill-advised the former leader hence some of them were thrown into jail.

Adu Gyimah said that, he is not sure President John Agyekum Kufuor had gone through the committee’s findings and recommendations before ordering his removal on the advice of the Police Council.

Former DCOP Adu Gyimah said that if he is not being victimised, then he wants the Police Council to put him before court to prove his innocence or otherwise for as he put it, ''I have a reputation to protect and mind you the whole world was made to believe that I had links with armed robbers. What prevents them from putting me before court to be tried?'' he queried.