Leading NPP member sues Attorney-General, BNI

Accra, July 2, GNA - A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has filed a writ at the Supreme Court against the Attorney-General and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for an order that any person appearing before any panel of the bureau shall be entitled to a lawyer of his choice as laid down in Article 14 (2) of the Constitution. Mr Ray Kakraba-Quarshie, a lawyer and former executive member of the NPP, is seeking a declaration that "the decision of the government freezing the constitutional rights of NPP gurus and former government officials to have legal representation when they are invited to national security facilities for interrogation is oppressive, capricious, arbitrary, unconstitutional and a clear violation of Article 14 of the 1992 constitution and other statutes".

The suit said this was because every person shall be entitled to his personal liberty and no person shall be deprived of his personal liberty except in certain cases and in accordance with procedure permitted by law.

These exceptions include the execution of a sentence or order of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which a person has been convicted; in execution of an order of a court punishing a person in contempt of court; for the purpose of bringing a person before a court in execution of an order of a court or when a person is suffering from an infectious or contagious disease.

Other exceptions include for the purpose of preventing unlawful entry of that person into Ghana or upon reasonable suspicions of his/her having committed or being about to commit a criminal offence under the laws of Ghana.

The suit is also seeking a declaration that "any person who is arrested, restricted or detained shall be informed immediately in a language that he/she understands of the reasons for his arrest, restriction, detention and of his right to a lawyer of his choice". National executives and former ministers of the NPP have led a chorus of protests against the decision of the BNI not to allow counsel of former NPP ministers and officials to be accompanied by their lawyers when they are invited by the BNI.