Court dismisses EOCO’s motion

The Human Rights Court in Accra today dismissed a motion by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for stay of execution for awarded damages awarded against the state body by the Court.

The Court in May 2011 awarded damages against EOCO after the Court upheld the Ghana Football Association's suit against the investigative agency.

EOCO were ordered to pay GHS 50,000 to the Ghana Football Association as damages and GHS 9,000 as cost for its raid on the FA’s headquarters of the GFA on December 7, 2010.

The Court's ruling noted that the sections of the High Court Rules being evoked by EOCO could be applied in an instance where they had accepted the judgment of the court.

According to the Court, it would be an obvious embarrassment for the court to accept the EOCO’s argument.

The Court said because EOCO was challenging the order of the court, it could not come under CI 47 of the High Court Rules, adding that amounted to abuse of the court’s process, hence upheld the argument of the GFA.

It further awarded another GHS 500 as cost against EOCO.