Chief petitions A-G over non-prosecution

Accra, Aug. 15, GNA - Nana Kwabena Angu II, Divisional Chief of Apinto Awudua in Tarkwa, has petitioned the Minister of Justice and Attorney General (A-G), requesting the trial of some eight people for plotting to assassinate him.

He said the suspects, who were arrested in December 2003 by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at a hideout in Tarkwa and later transferred to Accra, had been released without any further hearing of the case.

"Justice delayed is justice denied," the chief said in the 27-point petition, which he copied to the President, Speaker of Parliament, the Inspector General of Police, Director of CID, and the Director of Bureau of National Investigations.

Nana Angu, who is also the Nifahene of the Wassa Fiase Traditional Area, held that the A-G's department had submitted a Bill of Indictment to the Police towards the prosecution of the case, but certain individuals of high political office were using their influences to frustrate the process. He said while "the blame game" for the non-prosecution of the suspects continued to "oscillate" between the CID headquarters and the A-G's Office," the perpetrators walked about town boasting that the case had been "killed".

The Chief stated that his chiefdom would advise itself "appropriately" should the A-G fail or refuse to remove "the seemingly insurmountable obstacle" to the prosecution of the case. The petition mentioned the suspects, who, it said, were once remanded in Accra, as Alhaji Fusani Abubakari, Abdulai Musah, Karimu Musah, Nana Afua Yaadwo, Nana Kwasi Ansah, Gladys Keegya, Alex Sampson and Yahaya Moro.

Nana Angu reiterated that recent spate of reported assassinations in the country made it imperative that known culprits were dealt with swiftly.

"If those who have been apprehended already have been let off the hook, what incentive exists for other Ghanaians to provide information on perpetrators of heinous crimes in Ghana," he asked.