The Supreme Court has suspended the enforcement of a Court of Appeal judgment directing the promotion of 40 police officers who challenged their exclusion from a special promotion programme administered by the Ghana Police Service.
The Court of Appeal had overturned an earlier ruling by the High Court, which dismissed the officers’ lawsuit against the Inspector General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, and the Police Management Board. The appellate court subsequently ordered the authorities to implement the promotions sought by the officers.
The dispute originated from an amnesty introduced by the Police Management Board in 2021. Under the arrangement, police officers recruited between December 2008 and 2020 who had obtained first degrees were eligible for promotion.
However, the 40 officers maintained that they were unfairly excluded from the programme, even though some of their colleagues, including officers junior to them, had benefited from the exercise. They were seeking promotion from the rank of Chief Inspector to Assistant Superintendent of Police.
The officers also pointed to the advancement of other personnel from Corporal to Sergeant, Sergeant to Inspector, and Inspector to Chief Inspector, arguing that their exclusion from the next level of promotion was unjustified.
Aggrieved by the decision, they initiated legal proceedings against the IGP and the Police Management Board at the High Court in Kumasi, requesting an order compelling the police authorities to promote them. The High Court, however, dismissed their action.
The officers subsequently challenged that decision before the Court of Appeal, which ruled in their favour, reversed the High Court’s decision and directed that their promotions be implemented.
Dissatisfied with the appellate court’s ruling, the IGP appealed to the Supreme Court and later applied for a stay of execution to prevent the promotions from being carried out while the substantive appeal remained pending.
A five member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, granted the application and stayed the enforcement of the Court of Appeal’s judgment.
In granting the request, the court reasoned that the affected officers could be adequately compensated if the IGP’s appeal were ultimately unsuccessful.
The stay means the promotion order will not be enforced while the Supreme Court considers the appeal. The decision does not, by itself, determine the final outcome of the dispute over the officers’ eligibility for promotion.
