You are here: HomeNewsRegional2017 04 07Article 526597

General News of Friday, 7 April 2017

Source: starrfmonline.com

Delta Force court raid shocking and disappointing – Ayine

Former deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dominic Ayine Former deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dominic Ayine

A former deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dominic Ayine, has described the invasion of a court in Kumasi Thursday by members of the dreaded vigilante group, Delta Force, as extremely worrying and disconcerting.

“When I got to know it was a true story, I was really shocked and disappointed,” he stated on Morning Starr Friday.

“The Delta Force has done the unthinkable,” he added, urging that members of the group should be treated  as “common criminals.”

According to Mr Ayine, who is also the deputy ranking member for the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of Parliament, when he heard the news of the raid,  he thought it was one of those fake news until it was confirmed that it was a true story.

“I was really really shocked…I wondered why a court of law could be attacked when usually the court should have police men….so I was really shocked,” he told the host of Morning Starr Francis Abban.

Some members of Delta Force, a vigilante group  affiliated to the ruling New Patriotic Party in the Ashanti region Thursday morning stormed a Kumasi Circuit Court to free 13 of their members who were facing charges for causing mayhem at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council.

According to information gathered by Starrfmonline.com, the irate group destroyed court properties and freed the suspects in the process.

The 13 members were detained in connection with attacking the Regional Security Coordinator.

The marauding group also attacked the presiding judge who had earlier ruled that the suspects be remanded to appear before court on April 20, 2017.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) David Asante Apeatu said the group associated with the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) overwhelmed the police at the Kumasi circuit court.

“…they (police officers) were overwhelmed by the numbers that came to the court to beseech the court to enable these accused persons to escape,” he said.

Meanwhile, all the 13 members of the group who escaped from the court room have turned themselves in, a police statement said.

According to the statement, the suspects reported to the police Thursday evening hours after they had escaped in such an unprecedented fashion from the court.

"The accused persons who were arraigned before the Kumasi Metropolitan assembly circuit court presided over by HH Mary Nsenkyire and had been remanded into custody for two weeks but escaped after pandemonium broke out at the court had reported themselves to the Police and are currently in police custody,” the statement said.