TRANSFER OF 17 TO ACCRA WRONG — AVOKA (PAGE 47)

A legal practitioner, has faulted the procedure under which 17 people suspected to be involved in the Bawku conflict were airlifted from Tamale to Accra to ensure what the police called speedy investigations and trials.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic at Bolgatanga, Mr Cletus Avoka, a lawyer and a former Member of Parliament for the Bawku West Constituency, said “the procedure adopted by the police was arbitrary and wrong.”
Last Tuesday 17 persons arrested in connection with the conflict in Bawku were transported by road from Bolgatanga to Tamale to be airlifted to Accra.
The Upper East Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police Ofosu Mensah-Gyeabour, told the court that the cases were being sent to Accra to ensure speedy investigations and trial of those cases.
He said that decision would also prevent relatives and friends of the suspects in the region from interfering with police investigation into the cases.
Mr Avoka explained that the manner in which the accused persons were transferred was inconsistent with the legal procedure of transferring cases from one court to the other.
According to Mr Avoka, it was evident that some of those airlifted to Accra had earlier been arraigned before the Bolgatanga District Court and remanded in custody and pointed out that the only way one could carry out such an act was for the Chief Justice to direct the judge(s) sitting on the case to transfer them.
He said the other option was for the prosecution to apply to the court to have the cases withdrawn, re-arrest the suspects then process them before another court.
“But for a case before a court of competent jurisdiction and without appropriate instructions have the case transferred is inconsistent with the known principles of criminal procedure in our jurisprudence”, he said.
In the view of Mr Avoka, the action embarked on by the police constituted contempt of court since “they have disabled the judge from carrying out his function and brought the administration of justice into disrepute.”
Meanwhile 18 persons who have been granted bail by the Bolgatanga District Magistrate’s Court in connection with the conflict in Bawku, who were due to appear before it on Thursday failed to turn up in court.
When the case was called, counsel for 11 of the suspects, Mr Cletus Avoka, said the suspects failed to turn up in court probably out of fear because unconfirmed information going round indicated that those on bail should also be arrested and sent to Accra.
That, he said, might have led to their absence from court.
He therefore prayed the court to adjourn the case in order to allay the fears of his clients. The judge concurred and adjourned the case to July 17, 2008.