Some small-scale miners at Tinga in the Bole District of the Northern Region have described as unfair a ruling delivered by Justice Kwame Osei Gyamfi of the Tamale High Court, which appears to have nullified an earlier judgement by another judge at the Commercial Division of the same High Court, Justice Daniel Kwaku Obeng, in an alleged stealing case against the Assembly Member for the Teshei electoral area in the Bawku West District in the Upper East Region, Patrick Ayaaba.

Earlier a Circuit Court, which heard the case, found the accused guilty and sentenced him to a fine of 300 penalty units or GH¢3,600. In default, he would serve two years imprisonment.

He was also to refund GH¢400,000 to the complainant in the case.

The case went on appeal at the Commercial Division of the High Court in Tamale, and the decision of the lower court (Circuit) was upheld. But for unexplained reasons, the same case went to Justice Kwame Osei Gyamfi’s court, and he, this time, quashed the earlier decision of the Circuit Court, and freed the suspect from any crime, when his counterpart from the Commercial Court had already upheld the decision of the lower court.

The complainant in the case, Abdulai Sirta (owner of a small-scale mining company), reported the accused, Patrick Ayaaba (employee of the complainant), to the police in Bole on December 11, 2015 for stealing his heap of sand, a by-product of gold mining called “over,” worth GH¢400,000 at the mining site.
Addressing a press conference at Tinga near Bole, the Spokesperson of the Small Scale Miners and the Secretary to the Chief of Tinga, Mr Abdul Rahman Suale, asserted that Justice Gyamfi’s decision to quash the earlier ruling by the Circuit Court, which was subsequently upheld by  Justice Daniel Kwaku Obeng of the Commercial High Court, was not only to deny the complainant, Abdulai Sirta, justice, but apparently, to clear the accused person, Patrick Ayaaba, off the theft charges to enhance his political ambition.

Mr. Abdulai Sirta fumed that the High Court, presided over by Justice Gyamfi, granted the ex parte motion by the accused without taking the claims of the prosecution into consideration, and went ahead to set aside the earlier ruling on the matter by a Circuit Court, that was subsequently upheld by the Commercial Division of the High Court.

According to the complainant, the ruling by the High Court against the decision of its Commercial Division, which has the same jurisdiction, has raised questions about the justice delivery system in the Tamale Metropolis, and thus appealed to the Chief Justice to cause an investigation into the matter, to ensure that justice was duly served.

The small-scale miners and their Spokesperson, Mr Abdul Rahman Suale, narrated that the Tamale Circuit Court, presided over by Justice William Appiah Twumasi, first heard the case of stealing against Patrick Ayaaba and sentenced him to a fine of 300 penalty units or GH¢3,600. He was also to refund GH¢400,000 to the complainant in the case.

The accused, who was, however, not satisfied with the Circuit Court’s judgement, appealed against the sentence at the Commercial division of the Tamale High Court, presided over by Mr Justice Daniel Kwaku Obeng, who affirmed the earlier decision by the Circuit Court and increased the fine from 300 penalty units (GH¢3,600) to 5,000 penalty units, which is about GH¢60,000, or in default, serve five years’ imprisonment in hard labour.

Patrick Ayaaba, again, sent the case to another judge at the same Tamale High Court against the Commercial Court’s ruling, and in its ruling last Friday, the High Court, presided over by Justice Gyamfi, squashed the ruling by the Circuit Court at the time the Commercial Division of the High Court had upheld the ruling of the Circuit Court upon appeal.

His decision did not only anger the small-scale miners in Tinga, but several legal practitioners in Tamale, who are questioning how and why a court of the same jurisdiction could overturn rulings by a division of the same court.

Facts

The complainant in the case, Abdulai Sirta, is a registered small-scale miner and resident of Tinga, a community near Bole in the Northern Region, while the accused person, Patrick Ayaaba, is an employee of the complainant at Wasipe, a mining community in Bole.

The complainant reported the accused to the police in Bole on December 11, 2015 for stealing his sand, a by-product of gold mining called “over,” worth GH¢400,000 at the mining site.

The case was later transferred from the Bole District Court to the Tamale Circuit Court, after the Attorney-General’s Department had advised that the accused be charged with stealing.

The case was called at the Tamale Circuit Court on March 8, 2016. Patrick Ayaaba, who was charged with stealing, pleaded not guilty to the offence, and was granted bail in the sum of GH¢300,000 with one surety.

On September 7, 2016, the Tamale Circuit Court sentenced Ayaaba to a fine of 300 penalty units or GH¢3,600, or in default, serve two years’ imprisonment, after the court found him guilty of the offence of stealing.

The accused person, however, filed an appeal at the Commercial Division of the Tamale High Court, presided over by Justice Daniel Kwaku Obeng, and lost the case again, and this time round, his sentence was increased from 300 penalty units to 5,000 penalty units.

Patrick Ayaaba, who was still not satisfied, filed another appeal at the Justice Osei Kwame Gyamfi court, which eventually ruled in favour of the accused person.