The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Chief Executive, Alfred Vanderpuije, on Friday appeared for the first time before an Accra Fast Track High Court to answer two contempt charges brought against him and a consultant of the AMA by the Advertisers Association of Ghana (AAG) and an advertising firm.

Mr. Vanderpuije, sporting a pair of jeans and white shirt with blue stripes, was in a pensive mood during the proceedings. At some stages, he appeared uneasy and left the court room until the case was adjourned.

Mr. Vanderpuije, who was cited for contempt of court together with Mr. John Yankah, the consultant, has since June 7, failed to show up in court on four consecutive times that the two contempt applications came up.

But the court at its last sitting on June 28, warned the Mayor to personally appear in court to respond to the applications since it was against the person of the Mayor and the consultant and not the AMA as the court was initially made to believe.

The court had refused a plea by counsel for the applicants, George Ankomah Mensah, to issue bench warrant for the arrest of Mr. Vanderpuije, ruling then that the contempt applications were against the AMA and not Mr. Vanderpuije as a person because the titles of the applications were couched as ‘Advertising Association of Ghana versus Accra Metropolitan Assembly’.

At Friday’s sitting, counsel for the respondents, Selina Fenteng, pleased with the court to grant her clients stay of execution and stay of proceedings to argue the applications and not grant the reliefs the applicants were seeking.

However, Mr. Mensah submitted that the two reliefs could not be granted in law and that counsel could ask for one of them.

“In law you cannot ask for the two reliefs, you either ask for stay of execution or stay of proceedings, asking for the two reliefs is untenable in law,” he argued.

The court, presided over by Mr. Justice Peter Dei-Offei, adjourned proceedings to July 27, to enable counsel for the respondents to reply to the submissions.