Nene Tetteh Djan III, Paramount Chief of Prampram Traditional Area has convicted and sentenced to four weeks' imprisonment for contempt of a Tema High Court.
The Court presided over by Mr. Justice K. K Acquaye found him guilty of willfully refusing to obey the court's order of February 17, to submit certain accounting books in his possession to facilitate the auditing of the accounts of the Prampram Traditional Council. After the sentence was passed, the chief, who looked calm in his own seat that was carried to the court, was taken in a taxi to the Nsawan Medium Security prison to begin his term. The Traditional Council represented by Mr. George Heward-Mills filed a writ asking the court to compel the chief to release all accounting books in his possession for the auditing of the traditional council's account. This followed an initial audit check, which revealed that an amount of 160.4 million cedis allegedly taken from the council's treasury by the Paramount Chief could not be accounted for.
Mr. Justice Acquaye noted that Nene Tetteh Djan devised various strategies to deliver some of those documents in piecemeal and at his own convenience well outside the period given him or chose not to deliver them at all. At a point the Chief said some of the documents were with one Shippi Ashilley but he later brought them to the court without any explanation. "Since the order, there has been a systematic and continuous attempts by the respondents to throw dust into the eyes of the public by making conflicting presentations to frustrate the auditing of the traditional council," he observed. Mr. Justice Acquaye said, these were acts to bring authority of the court into disrepute and, therefore, ruled that the conduct of the chief was clearly a contempt of court.
Meanwhile, reports from Prampram indicated that some people took to the streets to jubilate over the incarceration of their chief. Mr. Pat Quaye, counsel for the chief, who had argued that his client did not deliberately refuse to submit the books but had genuine difficulties, said he would appeal against the sentence.
