Director of Public Prosecutions stand accused

GHANA'S MINISTER of Justice and Attorney General has been petitioned to call the Director of Public Prosecutions, Miss Gertrude Aikins to order following her alleged interference' in a case duly established by the law office in Kumasi against a suspect, whose lawyer is said to be a close ally of the head of the public prosecution.

Mr. Samuel Y. Yeboah, Managing Director of SAN Pharmacy in Kumasi and Opanin Kwame Afreh, former President of National Drinking Bar Operators Associations and both complainants in a case before the Attorney General's department have questioned the conduct of the Director of Public Prosecutions for her undue interference in the said case.

They want the Minister to investigate the circumstance under which the Director of Public prosecutions is withholding a case docket even before the case is heard in court.

The petitioners are claiming losses estimated at over GH¢700,000 from the defendant, Mr. Kwasi Osei Boakye, a Kumasi businessman who has been connected with the burglary of SAN Pharmacy of hundreds of thousands of cedis worth of  assorted drugs and other  items including office equipment and cash. The petitioners, who are tenants of the SAT building in Kumasi whose ownership has come under dispute, complained at a Press Conference in Kumasi on Saturday that Miss Gertrude Aikins who is an intimate friend of lawyer Kofi Addo, counsel for defendant, called for the docket four months ago after the Attorney General’s department had established a case against the suspect for which a docket had been prepared pending determination in a law court.

Last Saturday’s forum was a follow up to a formal petition to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General in May this year.

They claimed the docket has since not been returned to the Attorney General's department for the case to continue thus raising suspicions.

Mr. Osei Boakye, the defendant and a distributor of Unilver is claiming ownership of the SAT building which houses the Sun Pharmacy and offices of the two petitioners against the claims of Obaapanin Akua Duruwaa of Apagyafie in Kumasi.

The SAT building is said to be part of Part 1 Lands in Kumasi for which Akua Duruwaa has brought a suit since 2005 against Mr. Boakye, the Lands Commission and Unilver for recovery of possession of the said building and still pending before the court.

But while the court is yet to determine the matter, Osei Boakye arbitrarily barricaded the building which is in dispute in May 2008 and started structural changes to the building thus forcing the closure of the SAN Pharmacy and other offices in the said building.

After waiting for almost six months, the proprietor of the pharmacy, Mr. S.Y. Yeboah lodged a complaint with the Police Commander upon which he was ordered to re-enter since no court had made any order to that effect.

On entering the pharmacy for the first time in six months, it was found to have been broken into and cash and assorted drugs and other valuables amounting to about GH¢700,000 pilfered and a total amount of GH¢6, 200 which was locked up following the forcible closure of the pharmacy, had been looted. As a result, a formal complaint was lodged with the Buffalo Unit of the Ghana Police Service in Kumasi. Following a full scale investigations by the Police the Attorney General’s department took up the matter in which we are claiming loses estimated at over GH¢700,000 from the chief suspects of the loot, including Osei Boakye, his works supervisor and security personnel who supervised the structural changes to the SAT building have been interrogated.

Mesrrs. Yeboah and Afreh said continued withdrawal of the docket was an obstruction and travesty of justice. They noted that the seizure of the docket would make the petitioners suffer further damages and loss of property and called on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to intervene in the name of justice and fair play.

The plaintiffs believe they have a case since the Attorney General's department and the police had fully investigated it for determination at a law court. According to them, the police are aware that a suspect under investigation is possessing some of the vandalized office furniture of one of the offices in question.

They have condemned Miss Aikins unacceptable conduct describing it as a deliberate attempt to deny them justice.

“it is not only disgusting but also raises enough suspicion for any right minded individual to suspect a fishy deal they noted and  called on the  Minister of Justice to address this classic injustice and shameful order of the jungle where only the strong and rich can hope for survival in a democratic era†Â