Ex-tribunal chairman in Jail

In an ironic twist of fate, an ex-chairman of the public tribunals in the PNDC era, who sent hundreds of fellow Ghanaians to jail is now languishing in jail himself, the Free Press writes.

The ex-tribunal chairman, Mr Addo-Aikins has been incarcerated at the James Fort Prisons for the past month because he could not get anybody to stand surety for him, even though he had been granted bail. He was sent to court for embezzling 8000 dollars belonging to a client.

According to informed sources, sometime in 1994, a client of Addo-Aikins instructed him at the time when he was in private practice as a lawyer to sue Alitalia Airlines for the loss of his luggage after travelling on the airline and his luggage got missing.

Eventually the airline paid a compensation of 8000 dollars to Addo-Aikins on behalf of the client, which started the trouble.

Addo-Aikins, according to the Free Press, embezzled the money and started tossing the client up and down.

Suspecting foul play, the client contacted Alitalia and was informed that the compensation had already been paid to his lawyer.

He therefore sued Addo-Aikins in a civil suit to recover the money and judgement was given in his favour, but Addo-Aikins begged the court to be given time to pay the money. When the stipulated time elapsed, he failed to pay the money and asked for another extension.

After several such extensions, the client became fed-up and reported the failure back to the court.

In April this year, Addo Aikins was eventually dragged before an Accra High Court and asked to show cause why he should not be jailed.

Even though he was eventually granted bail, nobody was willing to stand surety for him and he was sent to James Fort Prisons.