Attorney General saves IGP from being jailed

A swift intervention by the Attorney General saved the Inspector General of Police, David Asante Appeatu, from being sentenced Thursday for contempt of court.

The IGP who was found guilty of contempt for disobeying a court order to provide Police escort, was to be sentenced today but when the case came up in court, deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, announced his outfit has appealed the conviction of the IGP.

He was not in court Thursday but the deputy AG apologized for the IGP’s absence.

Mr. Dame then announced to the High Court presided over by Justice Daniel Mensah that they have filed three applications to prevent the court from sentencing the IGP to either a jail term or a fine.

He said the first application is for a suspension of execution while the second one is a notice of appeal. The third application, he said, seeks to prove that the property under contention which resulted in the contempt is indeed the property of the Ghana Police Service.

Background

The court two weeks ago convicted the IGP for disregarding its order. The order was for him to provide police escort to assist with the eviction of occupants of 12 blocks of flats at Madina REDCO in Accra.

The occupants to be evicted from the flats that are under dispute were police personnel.

Graphic Online reported two weeks ago that “the court is livid with the IGP because he disobeyed its orders to provide security for the execution of the order, which is for the sale of the 12 blocks of flats at REDCO”.

The case has traveled from 1988 when a woman, Mrs Aggrey, now deceased, filed the case against REDCO Company Limited.

Subsequent to the demise of the woman, Samuel Aggrey Jnr and Augustine Gyekye took over the case.

Mrs Aggrey argued that REDCO failed to pay an amount of money owed her.

She won the case as the court in its judgment attached the property; the 12 blocks flats at Madina in Accra.

It was decided that if REDCO failed to pay the money, the court will sell the property to retrieve the money for her.

REDCO appealed the decision and lost and even before the court ruled on the matter, REDCO gave out the property to the Ghana Police Service to accommodate some of its officers.

Along the line, the Police Service reportedly purchased the property from REDCO and claimed ownership.

The applicants then went back to court to seek an order for the police to vacate the property and rather help to execute the High Court order to sell the property.

But the police failed to do that and instead claimed ownership of the property. The lawyers then filed another case citing the IGP for contempt.

The court presided over by Justice Daniel Mensah held that once the flat was in the custody of the court, it was illegal for anyone to sell or buy the property and that the police should have done due diligence.