National Security Director sacked over Caleb Kudah assault given top military appointment

When the National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, released a statement detailing actions taken against three policemen and the Director of Operations at the National Security Ministry, some critics said it was the usual way to reshuffle them and leave them when public outrage waned.

The critics did not have to wait too long to be proven right. Within 24 hours after the minister’s statement announcing the sacking of Lt. Col. Frank Agyeman as the National Security’s Director of Operations, he was appointed the Commanding Officer of the 64 Infantry Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Lt. Col. Frank Agyeman and the three policemen had been investigated for assaulting Citi FM’s Caleb Kudah, who was said to have illegally filmed some abandoned vehicles belonging to the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC).

The journalist said he was assaulted by the National Security operatives led by Lt. Col. Frank Agyeman.

“They pushed me and I sat on the chair. They [National Security operatives] slapped me from the back. I was trying to appeal to them that they had beaten me enough, but they were just slapping me from the back,” Caleb Kudah said after his release.

“I’ll be talking to another one and someone will just come and slap me from the back.”

The Ministry of National Security promised to investigate the incident, and it did so swiftly. The investigative committee, according to the ministry, “established that the conduct of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Agyeman (Director of Operations) and some police officers at the Ministry on the said day was inappropriate and contravened the Ministry’s standard operating procedures.”

The press statement signed by Mr. Kan-Dapaah said, “The secondment of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Agyeman (Director of Operations) at the Ministry has been reversed. The officer is to report to the Chief of Defence Staff for further investigation and appropriate action.”

The statement added that the “three (3) police officers involved have been withdrawn and are to report to the Ghana Police Service for investigation and disciplinary action.”

The minister’s press statement was dated May 20, 2021.

The following day (May 21, 2021), Lt. Col. Frank Agyeman was made the Commanding Officer of the 64 Infantry Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces.

The  64 Infantry Regiment is the Counter-Terrorism Unit (CTU) of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).As the Commando Unit of the military in the 1980s and early 1990s, the regiment was notorious for human rights abuses.

A Military Secretary (MS) publication labeled “Restricted” and sighted by The Fourth Estate said “Lt. Col. FK Agyeman (GH/3306)” was moving from the Army Headquarters, where he was before his secondment to the National Security Ministry.  His new position puts him in charge of the 64 Infantry Regiment.

Even though he will still be on the same rank, our sources in the military view the appointment as a promotion, because he will now head a unit.

The MS publication, according to our military sources, came from the office of the Chief of Defence Staff, which is supposed to investigate Lt. Col. Frank Agyeman and take further actions.

When The Fourth Estate contacted the Director of Public Relations at the Ghana Armed Forces, Col. Eric Aggrey Quarshie, he declined to comment on the matter.

Our sources at the Ministry of Defence, however, say the ministry has noted with concern the manner in which Lt. Col. Frank Agyeman was appointed and will resolve it.