The Supreme Court has thrown out a lawsuit filed by IMANI Africa and security expert Professor Kwesi Aning that questioned the President’s power to appoint and dismiss heads of Ghana’s security agencies.
A panel led by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang ruled that the plaintiffs failed to prove their case. As a result, the Court rejected all the declarations and reliefs they had requested.
In its judgment, the Court stated that the offices of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Director-General of Prisons are not covered by Article 191 of the 1992 Constitution, which protects certain public officers from arbitrary removal.
The Court also clarified that the appointments of the Chief Fire Officer and the Comptroller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service are regulated by specific laws.
According to the judges, those laws allow the President to exercise discretion over such appointments.
The ruling further affirmed that the President has constitutional responsibility for managing the country’s security structure.
For that reason, the President has the authority to appoint and oversee leaders of the security services within the limits of the law.
IMANI Africa and Professor Aning filed the case in 2024, arguing that the President should not have unrestricted power to remove heads of key security institutions from office.
They maintained that people occupying those positions enjoy constitutional safeguards and cannot be dismissed without following due process.
However, the Supreme Court disagreed with that interpretation. The judges concluded that the Constitution and existing laws support the President’s authority to appoint and remove the affected security chiefs.
