Minister under fire

Western Regional Minister, Joseph Boahene Aidoo (MP) smarting under charges of contempt of court at a Sekondi High Court has been lashed by a vacation judge, Justice K.K. Acquaye, for refusing to appear before him.

Commenting on the action of the minister, Justice Acquaye is reported to have said in court that his (minister’s) conduct and that of the Western Regional Police commander was disgraceful, to say the least, because they are people who have been put in authority and are supposed to set good examples for the pubic to emulate.

Justice Acquaye also cited the conduct of the two as akin to the kind of indiscipline that the country’s vice-president has launched a blistering campaign against in recent times. He accused the two public officers of treating the court with contempt and has embarrassed him as a judge.

Justice Acquaye said that if the regional minister did not give respect to him, as a judge, then he should also not expect any respect from him.

According to a Ghanaian Chronicle report, “the regional minister, the police commander and the Attorney General’s Department have been cited for contempt for their alleged involvement in the continued imprisonment of Odeneho Brentum IV of Dadieso, and 19 others who are standing trial for conspiracy to murder, even though they had been granted bail by a regional tribunal.

A certain Mr. Akuffo who was the only person in court represented the AG’s department.

It was the opinion of Justice Acquaye, that no matter the reason for the non-appearance in court of both the regional minister and the police officer, nothing prevented them from either writing to the court to explain their writing to the court to explain their absence or sending a high-powered delegation to plead with the court.

Justice Acquaye was on the verge of issuing a bench warrant for the arrest of the minister when lawyers at the bench got up and pleaded with him to tamper justice with mercy and rather give the minister a severe reprimand.

In response to the plea of the lawyers, Justice Acquaye ordered the minister and the regional commander to appear before him on Monday, September 23, this year.

The background of the case is that, in July this year, the regional tribunal granted bail to Nana Brentum IV and 19 other suspects who had been named in a conspiracy to murder case, which occurred in Dadieso in the Western Region.

Contrary to the court order, the Prison Service, which said it, was acting on instructions refused to release the suspects to go to court and sign their bail. The suspects are still being held in custody.

It is being alleged that it was on the instructions of the Regional Minister, the police commander and the A-G’s department that the suspects were not released from prison.

Counsel for the suspects, Bafour Jyumah, filed an application at the High Court in Sekondi to cite them for contempt of court. Only the A-G’s Department was represented.

According to legal opinion, once somebody is cited for contempt, the one must appear in person and cannot send a representative. If the person refuses to appear before the court, a bench warrant is issued for his arrest. Counsel for Nana Brentum, therefore, asked the court to order the arrest of the two.

Counsel argued that no one is above the law and so if the two have refused to appear before the court, then the court had no option but to order their arrest. He went on to say that the failure of the court to order their arrest would send a wrong signal to those in authority that they are above the law.

The regional minister is reported to have told the private-owned Ghanaian Chronicle that in an interview in response to why he was not in court that, the president of the Republic had delegated him to inaugurate the district assembly at Jomoro, in his region. He said as a Member of Parliament, he enjoys immunity and “cannot be arrested just like that”. “As MP, I enjoy immunity,” he told the paper.