Accra, Oct 16, GNA - The nim trees lining the beach end of the 28th February Road, just behind the Cocoa Affairs Courts in Accra provide a good shade, supported by the cool breeze of the Atlantic Ocean that offers litigants a serene atmosphere to sort thing out among themselves, often before or after daily court sittings.
During a brief visit to the area on Monday, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) observed various clusters of litigants quarrelling among themselves most of the time at high pitched voices. The noise they made, loud though as it sounded, it did not appear to disturb the proceedings of the many courts sitting across the road as it was swallowed by the noise of the heavy vehicular traffic. In one instance, one member of a group of about 20 elderly men appearing to be between the ages of 50 years and 70 year, mostly clad in men's cover cloth with the looks of typical rural farmers, who were about to board a hired bus after the day's court sitting, rained insults on two fairly young men, who had just taken-off in a Nissan pickup.
The two did not seem to hear the initial insults, but when the other members of the group joined in the fray, the accompanying noise attracted the attention of many bystanders and others engaged in commercial and other activities in the area and alerted the two men that they were the target of the attacks. The elderly man, who initiated the attack, had spotted one of the other parties in their case in the vehicle that took-off and alerted his colleagues.
From the nature of the insults, the GNA gathered that the litigation centred on land and that the two parties must have been in the court case over a parcel of land. "Eye tsone mi lo?", one asked in Ga, meaning (Is he in the vehicle?) and without seeing the person physically, but taking assurance from the confirmation of their colleague the elderly men intensified their insults, drawing the attention of many onlookers.
The young men having been caught up in traffic, however, stood firm and never talked back when it became apparent that they were the target of the attacks. They bailed off as soon as the traffic eased. In another case, a group of macho men engaged a group of elderly men in a heated argument. This argument also centred on land.
Miss Philomena Adedze, a mobile phone service operator at the area, told the GNA that sometimes the quarrels turned violent and some of the litigants physically attacked one another resulting in injuries. She said most of the time the Policemen at the courts were too busy to intercede or cause the arrest of the culprits, confirming the observation that the noisemaking outside the courtrooms, especially at that particular area hardly disturbed the courts' proceedings.
Miss Adedze said, however, that the loud noise made by those engaged in the quarrels sometimes hampered her work as it disturbed her customers while they made their phone calls.
She appealed to the Ghana Police Service to deploy some of their men to maintain regular surveillance at the area to avert any clashes in the future.
-
