General News of Wednesday, 17 July 2019

Source: mynewsgh.com

Gregory Afoko now a political prisoner in Ghana - James Algaga

Gregory Afoko, former Upper East Regional Chairman of the ruling NPP play videoGregory Afoko, former Upper East Regional Chairman of the ruling NPP

Ranking member of the Defense and Interior committee in parliament, Hon. James Algaga has described the High court’s decision to rescind Gregory Afoko’s bail as unfortunate making him a political prisoner in Ghana.

In a media interview monitored by MyNewsGh.com, the Builsa North legislator explained that the state’s posture Gregory Afoko’s prosecution is a course for worry as he is being treated as a political prisoner.

“I think that Gregory has become a political prisoner and that is most unfortunate. The High courts are of coordinate jurisdiction but when one high court has acted and made decisions with regards to the bail, the same procedure is used and an application is repeated before a court of Appeal to try to have the bail orders quashed and the Court of Appeal says no, do you now go back and bring back an application to rescind the bail orders granted by one High court? This is a clear case of abuse of procedures provided for the law” He said.



On Monday, July 15, 2019, an Accra High Court rescinded its decision to grant bail to a murder suspect, Gregory Afoko who had been unlawfully held in police custody for 120 days.

The decision was taken by a different judge at the Accra High Court, Justice Merley Wood, who overturned the decision made by another High Court judge, Justice George Buadi on March 14 2019.

The suspect is being tried for the murder of former NPP Upper East Regional Chairman, Adams Mahama in 2015.

But the order to release the suspect on bail was disregarded by the state for four months. Within that period, two attempts to have the decision reversed, at the High court and later the Appeal’s court, both failed.