Founder of the Alliance for the Restoration of Civil Rights, William Yirenkyi
Activist and founder of the Alliance for the Restoration of Civil Rights, William Yirenkyi, has retracted an apology he issued to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), stating that he was coerced into making the statement as a condition for his release from police custody.
In a Facebook post on March 29, 2025, Yirenkyi declared that his apology did not reflect his true position.
“I want to make it clear that the apology I gave on March 19, 2025, does not reflect my true position on the matter. I did not issue that apology because I admitted to any wrongdoing, but because the Ghana Police Service set that condition for my release after my arbitrary arrest and detention,” he wrote.
Yirenkyi was arrested on March 18, 2025, after being invited by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters to respond to a complaint allegedly lodged against him.
He was released on police inquiry bail from the Nima Police Station the following day at approximately 6:00 PM, after issuing the said apology.
“They said I should apologise to the IGP for a statement I made on my Facebook page, which was deemed harmful. So, I did apologise, and they granted me bail,” Yirenkyi revealed in an interview with Homebase TV journalist Beauty Etornam Amedzotsi on March 19, 2025.
However, in his retraction, Yirenkyi insisted that his initial social media post mentioning the IGP was not intended to ridicule him but rather to highlight ongoing police injustices.
“My fight against police misconduct remains unchanged, and I will not back down in the face of injustice. With this, I take back that apology, as it does not represent what I truly stand for,” he stated.
In his statement, Yirenkyi raised serious concerns about the integrity of the justice system, asserting that his arrest was meant to suppress his activism rather than follow due legal processes.
“An arrest is supposed to be a legal process based on evidence and due process. But when activists and truth-seekers are arrested not to face a fair trial but to be coerced into apologizing in exchange for their freedom, it raises serious questions about the integrity of our justice systems,” he wrote.
He warned that the practice of forcing suspects to apologise rather than presenting evidence in court undermines justice, sending a dangerous message about power and control.
“This is not just about one person; it’s about a system that is being manipulated to punish those who demand accountability while protecting those who abuse power,” he said, calling on Ghanaians to demand accountability and resist intimidation.
Yirenkyi has been engaged in a series of legal disputes with the Ghana Police Service. Recently, he accused the police of disregarding transparency laws after they failed to attend a mediation hearing convened by the Right to Information Commission (RTI) on March 10, 2025.
The hearing, scheduled under Section 44(c) of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989), aimed to address three outstanding requests for information Yirenkyi had filed against the police.
However, neither the then IGP nor any police representative attended the meeting.
Following the failed mediation, the RTI Commission instructed Yirenkyi to submit a written petition outlining his information requests and assured him that it would demand an explanation from the IGP regarding the police’s absence at the hearing.
AM/KA
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