Judge fumes as BNI unlawfully detains suspects for 12 days

It has emerged at the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court that, the Beaurau of National Investigation (BNI) has abused the constitutional rights of two suspects and has detained them for 12 days without lawful custody.

This according to the court is a clear breach of the constitutional rights of the suspects who were arraigned on charges relating to human trafficking.

The suspects Robert Nana Kwame Hayford and Nii Oblitey Commey were arraigned before the court on Wednesday.

Four others including Chief Bello, Clara Kisi and Budu are all at large. The sixth person Samuel Willis, a Nigerian national is in Sekondi Prison for his role in the Takoradi kidnappers case.

The infuriated judge said the attutde of the BNI to detain the accused persons beyond 48 hours gives evidence of the bad publicity it has incurred in recent time.

“Friday would be two weeks when they were arrested and you detained them. Tell your superiors I’m not happy. I will not close my eyes over infractions like this when you go tell them. I will not entertain anything like this. When their lawyer rises now, you will see that they will cause financial loss to the state,” the infuriated Justice Buadi remarked.

The court was also wondering why the BNI could disrespect the very constitution and at a point threatened not to remand the suspect’s in their custody.

But Lilly Atu Tigah, the State Attorney and the representative of BNI apologised profusely and said bureaucracy in the BNI caused them this embarrassment.

They, however, prayed the court for them to be remanded pending the conclusion of their investigations.

The court said the apologies from the state attorney and the fact that the accused persons themselves have agreed to be detained at the BNI custody, was convincing.

They have subsequently been remanded at the BNI custody to reappear on November 4.

Brief facts

According to the prosecution, the complainant in the case is Patience Mortey, who lives at Ashalaja while Hayford is a businessman. Oblitey is a fisherman at James Town.

The rest of Chief Bello, Clara Kisi and Budu are at large while Samuel Willis, the Nigerian who was convicted in the Takoradi kidnapping case is the 6th suspect.

The prosecution indicated that somewhere in July 2016, Clara Kisi lured the complainant Patience Mortey from Mallam to Tema Community 9 where Budu transported her with two other females to the residence of Chief Bello in a Pick-Up. They stayed there for over eight months.

Bello, the prosecution said exploited the complainant and offered her to men for sex for money.

Bello, the prosecution said received the payment from the sexual activity and the complainant subsequently identified Oblittey Commey, alias (TT) as the one who called her to the room to meet Bello where Budu asked her to sleep with a heavily built man at Bello’s house.

On the instruction of Bello, a dildo was inserted into the private part of the complainant by Hayford. Samuel Willi’s, the facts indicated always raped the complainant anytime she refused the clients they bring to her to have sex with.

This inhuman treatment she went through for eight months left her with marks on her legs.

With the offer of sex to Budu, the prosecution said Budu developed some trust with complainant and took her to the market and one of the days she escaped and reported the matter to the police.

A medical form was issued with her and the examination revealed that the complainant was two months pregnant and has since delivered a set of female twins.

The accused were arrested and arraigned.