AG's office is harassing me -GPRTU Chairman

ALHAJI E. A. TETTEH, Greater Accra Regional GPRTU Chairman, has expressed frustration and disgust over manoeuvrings at the Attorney General’s (AG) Department allegedly orchestrated by some politicians in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and his opponents within the GPRTU to infringe on his human rights and to harass him out of office.

According to him, since the NPP came to power, on two different occasions he has been hauled to the Tema Regional Tribunal and charged with conspiracy to steal ?127 million belonging to the IRS. But on each occasion, the AG’s Department has stopped the proceedings by entering a nolle prosecui to discontinue the trial. And yet he is required to report to the police at regular intervals, he said.

Alhaji Tetteh, who is also the constituency chairman of the NDC for Kpong Katamanso said anytime he expressed his intent to stand for a GPRTU post either at the regional or national level, the AG’s Department would then swiftly activate the charge against him to bar him from contesting.

Alhaji Tetteh recalled that sometimes in 1995, two officials of the IRS at Tema colluded with the branch secretary of the Tema GPRTU called Ayensu and sold income tax receipts totalling ?127 million and “chopped” it, without rendering account to the IRS. Alhaji Tetteh told this paper in an interview that upon investigation, he was charged alongside Mr. Samuel Adjei Mensah, the GPRTU Industrial Officer, with conspiracy and stealing. However, in 1996, the AG’s Department exonerated him and Adjei Mensah on the basis of inadequate evidence

Two of the people he was charged with, he said, died in the course of the trial.

However, when the NPP came to power, some of the GPRTU officials and NPP politicians orchestrated his retrial by the AG’s department at the Tema Circuit Court so that he could not participate in the GPRTU national elections scheduled for Kumasi.

He said a day before the national election, he received a summon from the AG’s office that he was to make an appearance at the Tema Circuit Tribunal for a retrial of the 1995 case, and on that basis he could not stand for any of the elective posts.

Concord learnt that the prosecution closed it case, whiles the defence also opened its case and called several witnesses and that on the judgment day set aside by the tribunal chairman, the AG’ Department submitted to the court that they had filed a nolle prosecui to halt the case.

Alhaji Tetteh said early 2003 again, he was completely taken aback when the GPRTU was about to organise the Greater Accra Regional elections and he showed his interest to contest for the chairmanship only to receive a letter from the AG‘s office in February, written by the Chief State Attorney indicating that he had embezzled ?300 million between 1993-1995 and was being investigated and that he had to be reporting to the police every week.

“Till today the AG’s Department has not been able to process me to stand trial on the ?300 million allegation”, Alhaji Tetteh noted.

However, on the strength of the AG’s Department letters, one Mr. Inusah Ibrahim, a member of the Ayawaso Taxi Branch of the GPRTU, instituted an action at the High Court claiming that on the basis of the letter from the AG indicating that Tetteh was to be charged for embezzlement, he ought to be restrained from holding office as chairman of the GPRTU and ineligible to contest for the regional election.

At the hearing of the case, counsel for Inusah, told the court presided over by Mrs. Agnes Dordzie, that Article 21 of the GPRTU Constitution requires that “An Officer accused of criminality shall be interdicted with a 2\3 salary or allowance” and that Alhaji Tetteh should be disqualified from contesting the planned election.

However, counsel for Alhaji Tetteh, Dr. Benjamin Kumbour, assisted by Mr. Frank Ebow Brown of Fugar Company, countered that the Constitution of Ghana clearly states that a person is presumed innocent until he is proven guilty of any offence.

He argued that if Tetteh was removed from office but later exonerated by the court, he would have lost his position as the dully-elected regional chairman of the Greater Accra Region without having committed any offence.

Justice Dordzie, however, granted the application and restrained Tetteh from holding himself as the chairman and also contesting the regional chairmanship.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, the applicant filed for a stay of execution, contending that he had filed an appeal in the case and that if he were successful on appeal there would be no remedy to compensate him for the loss of his position.

Giving her ruling recently, Mrs. Agyeman-Bempah, a vacation judge, said that it was an infringement of the 1992 Constitution to restrain Alhaji Tetteh from holding office or contesting for election. The judge also upheld the contention that the human rights of Alhaji Tetteh were being infringed since he was to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

She therefore set aside the Accra High Court order disqualifying Alhaji Tetteh from contesting the planned regional election, noting that she was convinced that Alhaji Tetteh would succeed on appeal.