ACP Kofi Boakye To Be Re-instated?

The Interior Minister, Cletus Avoka has stated that his ministry cannot re-instate former Police Director of Operations, ACP Kofi Boakye, as done in the case of Ben Ndego, without prior approval of the Police Council. Cletus Avoka, was confirming media reports on the reinstatement of Ben Ndego, former Deputy Director of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), who was asked to proceed on leave in 2006 following investigations into the MV Benjamin Cocaine Scandal. In an interview on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo”, Hon. Cletus Avoka, stressed that having found no incriminating evidence against Ndego by the Ampewuah Committee set up in 2006, the Ministry thought it best to re-instate him. Besides, he said, the former Dep. Dir. Of NACOB kept inquiring about his fate as he was not comfortable with being paid without working. “…sometime in 2006, the Min of Interior wrote to Ben Ndego asking him to go on leave with pay, and that they were studying the Ampewuah Committee report and after that they will get back to him…they never got back to Ben Ndego. Nobody told him you had committed this offence or have not committed that offence…So Ben has been petitioning all the time that he can’t be on leave with pay for three years without working…without adverse findings against him…So in fairness to him…without prejudice to anything we said he should go back to work,” he said. On the subject of the recall of ACP Kofi Boakye, back into active service, the Interior Minister indicated that a decision will be made when the Police Council meets later today. The council, chaired by the Vice President, John Dramani Mahama, will be examining a report by a committee tasked to look into a petition by the former police chief to be re-instated. ACP Kofi Boakye was interdicted in 2007 following the recommendation of the Georgina Wood Committee which investigated the popular MV Benjamin cocaine issue. Fallout of the case also led to the conviction of Kwabena Amaning, alias Tagor, and Issa Abass the same year. The two men have since been released after the Appeals Court overturned their sentence. Source: Alex Ofei