Kwame Takyi, from grass to grace!!!
It was a sad day for friends and family members of Mr Kwame Assuah Takyi when it was announced on October 25, 2013 that he had been interdicted as acting Deputy Director, Legal, of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).
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The interdiction received wide publicity from both print and electronic media, enough to break down any dedicated public servant.
At the time of his interdiction, Mr Takyi was the most senior career officer in the Ghana Immigration Service. The acting Director of Immigration, the most senior officer, was Dr Peter A. Wiredu, a retired Commissioner Of Police (COP).
Mr Takyi had been appointed acting Deputy Director, Legal, in September, 2002 by then President J. A. Kufuor and had acted in that position for 11 years without any extra remuneration except being paid an acting allowance of GH¢190 a month.
Upon his interdiction, Assistant Director, Victoria Ninette Baaba Asare, was appointed by the Ghana Immigration Service as acting Deputy Director, legal, while Assistant Director, Justice Mawunyo Dzokoto, was also appointed to take over the position of acting Deputy Director, Finance and Administration, held by Madam Veronica Addy, who was also interdicted along with Mr Takyi.
There was no doubt that those who did not know Mr Takyi and the type of person he was would welcome the news of his interdiction and show no sympathy because of the activities of illegal Chinese immigrants who were deeply involved in “galamsey” activities between 2011 and 2013.
According to investigations carried out by the Ghana Immigration Service, some of these foreign nationals, especially the Chinese, involved in illegal mining had resident permits, some of which were supposedly signed by Mr Takyi, Madam Veronica Addy and Assistant Director, Joseph Gardiner, who did not go to court like the other two.
What appeared to have precipitated the incarceration of Mr Takyi was a petition dated July 22, 2013 served on him and purported to have been written by one Sebastian Ohene-Twum (who described himself as a freelance journalist) through the Ministry of Interior, alleging, among other things, that Mr Takyi had been complicit and had colluded in the issuance of fake permits to the Chinese nationals and should be interdicted and investigation conducted.
It is not known who Ohene-Twum is but he appeared to have disappeared after his so-called petition. However, certainly the use of Ohene-Twum was one of the several intrigues and mischiefs used by retired COP Wiredu to mess up Mr Takyi and get him thrown out of GIS.
It must be stated that Mr Takyi responded and denied being complicit and colluding in the issuance of fake permits. He further drew the attention of the Director (Wiredu) to the fact that his signature had been forged and called for investigation into the forgery of his signature.
Mr Takyi further made the Director aware of his suspicion that there was a grand conspiracy against him because of his seniority. He, therefore, distributed his response to all management members.
I wish to state that I took interest in all that was happening to Mr Takyi, which I can describe as the “Travails of Kwame Takyi” right from the word go. At the time of his interdiction in October 2013, Mr Takyi was the National Secretary of the Old Vandals Association, the alumni of Commonwealth Hall of the University of Ghana, when I was also the national president of the association.
Mr Takyi had taken over from Mr Africanus Owusu Ansah in 2002 when I was the Greater Accra Regional President and throughout this period, we worked together to build the Old Vandals Association to the level it reached.
Incidentally, I later realised that Mr Takyi also attended West Africa Secondary School (WASS), my alma mater, and this brought us closer together.
It was as a result of all these that I took a special interest in what was happening to Kwame and what was going on at the Ghana Immigration Service.
I saw Mr Takyi as an innocent figure, a dedicated and selfless Ghanaian, always ready to give of his best wherever he found himself. From our interaction, I got to know that he wholeheartedly welcomed the appointment of Mr Wiredu as the acting Director of Immigration. He left me in no doubt that he was ready to help Mr Wiredu succeed.
But it appeared Mr Wiredu had his own plans. He saw Mr Takyi as a threat, being the most senior career officer and, therefore, he should get him out of the way so that he could stay at GIS for a long time without looking over his shoulders.
One of the reasons he was not comfortable with Mr Takyi, as I deduced, was the fact that even though both of them were lawyers and Mr Wiredu was far older, he was junior to Mr Takyi at the Bar.
Unfortunately, Mr Takyi did not know Mr Wiredu had never wished him well. It was very apparent that Mr Wiredu created the impression that he was sympathising with Mr Takyi when, in fact, he was rather pushing him into the pit.
A typical example was when he asked Mr Takyi to put into writing a supplementary to his initial denial that he was complicit in the issuance of fake resident permits to Chinese illegal immigrants.
Dated July 15, 2013, the statement to the Director ran like this:
“Sir I wish to respectfully submit a supplementary to the above mentioned subject matter dated March 3, 2013.
“That as Deputy Director, Legal, and with the pressure of numerous legal issues and court cases in addition to my present schedule of signing a lot of these cases, I might have signed some of these cases inadvertently”.
This was all that the conspirators needed to nail down Mr Takyi. This was the chance they needed to implicate Mr Takyi and get him out of GIS.
Somehow Mr Wiredu succeeded in getting the acting Chairperson of the GIS Board, Dr Adedaide Kastner, and the Minister of the Interior, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, to be on his side. Mr Ahwoi was purported to have reported the guilt of Mr Takyi to the former President, Mr John Mahama.
Accordingly a letter of interdiction was issued to Mr Takyi on October 25, 2013 “upon the direction of His Excellency, the President”.
At this stage many friends and well-wishers of Mr Takyi opted for a political solution to the problem. Some tried to get the intervention of the presidency without success.
All this while, Mr Takyi remained courageous and patient. He believed that it was only the count that could come out with the truth and put the matter to rest.
Mr Takyi then decided to go to court and got as his lawyer, Mr Benson Nutsukpui, with support from Aba Ewudzi – Mensah, Akweley Gabar and Jemima Dei.
The hearing of the case started on February 21, 2014 and it went a whole hog. It first went before Mr Kofi Essel – Mensah who was later involved in the Anas Armeyaw Anas saga. It was transferred to Justice Dennis Adjei, who was rather handling human right cases.
Finally, another Appeal Court Judge, Justice Henry Kwofie, took over and brought it to a conclusion with his landmark judgment on February 1, 2017.
The court found the interdiction of Mr Takyi without any basis since there was never anything like investigation conducted by constituted committee of the GIS. Mr Takyi was never given any opportunity to clear his name while it came out clearly that he was qualified and authorised to sign permits. Very crucial was also the fact that at no time was Mr Takyi shown the 19 passports with fake permits while there was no proof of any communication with the then President.
At the end, Mr Justice Kwofie had no option but to set aside the said interdiction and order the immediate reinstatement of Mr Takyi to the GIS without any loss of seniority, rights, privileges and entitlements and allowances from the date of interdiction to the date of reinstatement.