Gbevlo-Lartey in contempt charge

National Security Co-ordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (Rtd) is facing a contempt charge before the Human Rights Division of the High Court, Accra following his attempts to seize a government plot that was duly sold to Weija MP, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchway.

The court has fixed Tuesday, 9th November, 2010 for the hearing of the contempt application following a request for the adjournment from lawyers for Gbevlo-Lartey.

The MP through her lawyer, Egbert Faibille Jnr of Kulendi@Law, filed an Application for the Enforcement of her Fundamental Human Rights on the 20th day of April, 2010 and which application was to be heard on 5th May, 2010.

The basis of the application for the enforcement of the MP's human rights is that having duly applied for and been granted land by the Lands Commission which land she had duly paid for and in respect of which she had been given a duly executed lease making her the owner, certain national security officials had visited her property claiming it to be state land as a result of which she invoked Article 18 of the 1992 Constitution.

The Respondents to the said application are Brig. Gen. (Rtd) Joseph Nunoo Mensah, 1st Respondent, Gbevlo-Lartey, 2nd Respondent and the Attorney General, 3rd Respondent. The said application, according to checks, was duly served on all the three Respondents.

The background to the said application for enforcement of the MP's fundamental human rights is that whilst her workmen were busy at work on her property on 15th April, 2010, a group of men claiming to be National Security Operatives sent by and acting on the authority of Nunoo Mensah and Gbevlo Lartey, purporting to act in their official capacities as National Security Advisor and National Security Co-ordinator, visited the site and ordered her workmen to stop work immediately. The said National Security operatives also proceeded to erect a signboard with the inscription: "Government Property, Stay Off".

In an affidavit in support of her application to the court to commit Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey to prison for contempt, Ms Shirley Botchway deposes that Gbevlo-Lartey, upon service on him of her application for enforcement of her fundamental human rights, instructed his lawyers, Agbosu & Associates, an Accra-based law firm to file a motion raising a legal objection to her application for enforcement of her fundamental human rights.

Continuing, the MP said though her application for enforcement of her fundamental human rights was fixed for 5th May, 2010, lawyers for Gbevlo-Lartey, Dr. Lennox Agbosu and Mr. Opoku turned up in court to request for an adjournment and to enable them file the motion seeking to raise the legal objections.

The MP's affidavit states that following Gbevlo-Lartey's lawyers prayer, the suit was adjourned to 20th May, 2010.

Continuing further, the MP deposes that one of the reliefs she seeks and contained in her application for enforcement of her fundamental human rights is an "order of perpetual injunction, restraining the Respondents; their successors in office as National Security Advisor and National Security Co-ordinator respectively, their duly authorised officers and servants, workmen, agents, operatives and hirelings howsoever described from entering, preventing Applicant (MP's) workmen from working on an further construction of Applicant's property and/or interfering with Plaintiffs land ... "

The MP further deposes that notwithstanding the service of the application for the enforcement of her fundamental human rights on Gbevlo-Lartey, who is a lawyer enrolled on the roll of lawyers in Ghana and who as an officer of the court ought to show utmost respect for the administration of justice in Ghana.

She said Gbevlo-Lartey had also instructed his lawyers to represent him in court, by reason of which he was aware of the pendency of the application in court. In spite of these, agents of Gbevlo Lartey, led by one Inspector Azaglo entered her property on 6th May, 2010, in utter disregard and contempt of the court's sole right to determine the said application.

She continued that the said inspector Azaglo in a Rambo-style operation stormed her property, which is the subject matter of the pending application for enforcement of her fundamental human rights seized the construction tools of her workmen and arrested her foreman who was detained at the ministries police station.

In a further deposition, the MP maintains that Gbevlo Lartey, knowing of the pendency of the suit before the court and disregarding the said pendency of the suit and in the process granting to himself the very remedy that is to be determined by the court, is in contempt of court.

In his affidavit in opposition, Gbevlo-Lartey maintains that the MP's contempt application has not been brought in good faith and is simply intended to harass him as an innocent citizen.

In a related development, the Human Rights Division of the High Court that is due to hear the contempt application in a ruling on 14th June, 2010 dismissed the legal objection raised by lawyers for Gbevlo-Lartey. Gbevlo-Lartey's lawyers had in their motion sought to among others claim that the lease granted by the Lands Commission to Ms Shirley Botchway is ineffective.

In his ruling, the trial judge, Justice Utter Paul Dery stated among others thus:

"Counsel for 2nd Respondent's main objection is that the Applicant does not own the land within the meaning of Article 18(1) of the Constitution since she only has possession but not the legal estate which is vested in the President for and on behalf of the people of Ghana. So, the state owns the land whilst the Applicant is a tenant. It follows that, being the tenant, Article 18(1) cannot avail the Applicant.

"With due respect to Counsel, I find this argument disingenuous. There is nothing in Article 18(1) to show that the words used therein should be given any technical meaning as Counsel is proposing by resorting to the common law concept of ownership of land".