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The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a Court of Appeal judgment directing the promotion of 40 police officers who sued the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Christian Tetteh Yohuno, over their exclusion from a promotion exercise.
The Court of Appeal had overturned an earlier High Court ruling that dismissed the officers’ case and ordered the police authorities to effect their promotions.
The dispute stems from an amnesty introduced by the Police Management Board in 2021, which made officers enlisted between December 2008 and 2020 and who had obtained first degrees eligible for promotion.
The 40 officers contended that some of their colleagues, including those junior to them, benefited from the arrangement, while they were excluded from promotion from Chief Inspectors to Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs).
They also cited the promotion of other officers from Corporal to Sergeant, Sergeant to Inspector, and Inspector to Chief Inspector, arguing that their exclusion from the next rank was unfair.
The officers subsequently sued the IGP and the Police Management Board at the High Court in Kumasi, seeking an order compelling the police authorities to promote them. However, the court dismissed their claims.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the officers appealed to the Court of Appeal, which overturned the High Court’s decision and directed that their promotions be effected.
The IGP subsequently challenged the appellate court’s decision at the Supreme Court and applied for a stay of execution pending the determination of the appeal.
A five-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, granted the application, suspending the implementation of the Court of Appeal’s order while the substantive appeal remains pending.
In granting the stay, the court considered that the affected officers could be compensated if the IGP’s appeal ultimately failed.