Jones Before Tribunal For Assault

Accra Dr. Jones Ofori-Atta, an economic consultant, was today arraigned at a circuit tribunal in Accra for unlawful entry and causing unlawful damage to the property of Mr. David Lamptey, Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle. Dr. Ofori-Atta who faced additional charges of conspiracy and stealing pleaded not guilty. The tribunal chaired by Mr. Charles Quist granted him ten million cedis bail.

Mrs. Setorwu Ofori-Atta, a housewife, who was in the dock with him for abetment, also pleaded not guilty and was granted two million cedis bail.

The tribunal, after listening to the facts narrated by the prosecution and submission of counsel for the accused persons, said it was giving them a long adjourned date for both sides to undertake conciliatory measures and attempt to settle the matter at either a civil court or out of court.

This is because of the ''blood relationship'' between the accused persons and the MP. Mr. Lamptey is married to Mr. Ofori-Atta's relative. It therefore adjourned to July 29.

Prosecuting, Assistant Commissioner of Police Mrs. Mills Robertson told the tribunal that on June 10, Dr. Ofori-Atta and Mrs. Ofori-Atta sent two busloads of men to Mr. Lampety's house over which there is a dispute between Mr. Lamptey and Dr. Ofori-Atta.

She said only the dependants of Mr. Lamptey and his wife who is the niece of Dr. Ofori-Atta were in the house when they got there.

Dr. Ofori-Atta told them that he had come to eject them from the house because it belonged to him. He therefore drove them out of the main house, after which the two together with about 35 men broke into the rooms of Mr. Lamptey and his wife.

When they started bringing out items from the rooms, Mr. Lamptey's daughter pleaded with Dr. Ofori-Atta to allow her to remove valuable items from the rooms.

Dr. Ofori-Atta refused saying that he would take care of everything. He and his men then broke into the couple's wardrobes.

he MP had 4,000 pounds, 3,500 dollars and two million cedis and other valuables in his wardrobe while his wife's possession in her wardrobe included 28 million cedis, 25,000 dollars and 100 pounds and other valuables.

They removed everything from the main room and in the process most of the items were damaged.

From there, Dr. Ofori-Atta and his men went to an outer house where the children of the couple stay and removed the items from there after which they locked the gates.

The Prosecutor said when Mr. Lamptey went home to see what had happened, he went to the Airport Police Station to report the case.

There he found Dr. Ofori-Atta who had brought to the station one short gun belonging to him (Mr. Lamptey), two passports and one mobile phone belonging to his wife.

Policemen accompanied Mr. Lamptey to the scene where they took photographs.

They later retrieved some of the valuable items which were alleged to have been stolen from the rooms of Mr. and Mrs. Lamptey in a near-by bush.

According to the prosecution, the identities of the accomplices of the two accused persons are yet to be known.

Dr. Ofori-Atta and Mr. Ofori-Atta were represented by Mr. Kweku Y. Paintsil, Mr. Ben Annan and Mr. Atta Akyea.