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Crime & Punishment of Friday, 6 November 2015

Source: GNA

Micah's council against court proceedings

Ekow Micah Ekow Micah

Counsel for Ekow Micah, the ace musician who is being held over 127 grammes of alleged cannabis has prayed the court to halt proceedings before it.

According to counsel, Mr Andrew Kudzu Vortia he has filed a motion on notice for stay of proceeding pending an appeal.

Counsel said he filed the motion on Thursday and they are ready to serve prosecution as soon as he steps out of the court room and prayed for an adjournment.

He said the court had fixed November 11 to hear the matter.

The court presided over by Mr Aboagye Tandoh on October 27, threw out an earlier application and ordered Micah to open his defence.

Mr Vortia had earlier on argued before the court to recall the case investigator.

In his motion on notice for leave, Defence Counsel called for a rejection of police statement of Micah and called for a mini trial.

When the case was called, Micah was expected to open his defense.

Counsel said in the motion, Micah is complaining against the entire decision of the Circuit Court when it failed to uphold Micah’s legal objection to the admission of a confession statement.

According to defence counsel, the learned judge erred when he misdirected “himself and held that having a confession statement of the accused without the presence of an independent witness was admissible.”

“The learned trial judge erred when he failed to uphold that the statement of the accused was dictated to him by the Police investigator,” Mr Vortia contended.

According to counsel, “the learned trial judge failed to uphold that the accused person was denied the opportunity to consult a counsel of his own”.

Prosecution led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Moses Atimbilah had closed their case after calling three witnesses.

Micah has denied the charge of possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority, and he is currently on remand.

Narrating the facts of the case earlier, ACP Moses Atibillah said Micah is a resident of Ogbojo, near Kokrobite in Accra.

He said, on August 4, Micah was arrested by the Airport Police over an alleged extortion case currently under investigation.

ACP Atimbilah said the following day, at about 1130 hours, the police and the accused person visited Micah’s house to conduct a search and in the process, a quantity of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp was found concealed in Micah’s “back pack”.