CONDEMNED TO ROT AT NSAWAM

NEGLIGENCE OR SYSTEM FAILURE?

The family of Richard Yeboah, a suspect who has been on remand for the past five (5) years, are wondering if their relative is a victim of negligence or a system failure.

Richard Yeboah’s predicament is a test case for the whole judicial system, as well as other related agencies’ who actions determine the fate of people who are alleged to have fallen foul of the law.

Yeboah, suspected of possessing Indian hemp, has been on remand for the past five (5) years without a docket or any trace of his records in the entry books at the Accra Central Police Station where he was first held in 2004. The Attorney-General’s Department cannot locate any document on the said suspect, whilst the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Court which first heard the case and remanded him has no docket or document on him. The Investigator on the case, one Sylvester Lang-Morr, has deserted the Police Service and the Prosecutor, Mrs. Elizabeth Yeboah, is on retirement.

As a result, he was left to rot at the Nsawam Prisons until his family secured his transfer back to the Accra Central Police Station for the Human Rights Court to grant him bail or acquit him, after several shuttles and search at the Central Police Station, the AMA Court and the Attorney-General’s Department, with its attendant financial obligations. However, to their utmost surprise, the judge, Irene C. Danquah, sitting as an additional High Court Judge, granted him bail in the sum of GH¢20,000.00 with one surety; in lieu of payment thereof, he is to justify the bail with a landed property valued not less than GH¢20,000.00.

This bail, rather than relieving the family of their burden, which includes legal costs, has rather thrown all their efforts overboard since they are in no position to meet the conditions.

They are therefore wondering if their son would ever come out of police custody as no date has even been set for any further hearing.

Narrating their ordeal to The Daily Democrat, the visibly disturbed family members of Richard Yeboah recounted that somewhere in 2004, Richard, a second hand shoe seller at Katamanto, was going to work in the morning when he met one Fuseini and Adjoa Bimi, his friends who said they were going to give food to a mutual friend of theirs in police cells at the Accra Central Police station. He joined them to the place but did not get inside. After a long wait for the two, he left to sell his wares at Katamanto; some hours later, he saw Adjoa Bimi in the company of a police officer coming close to him at Katamanto. When the two got to him, Adjoa pointed to him and said in Twi, “weyi so ka ho”, meaning, “this one too is involved.”

According to the family, their son, Richard, did not attempt to escape, knowing that he had not committed any crime. It was at the police station he was told there was Indian hemp in the food and he knew something about it.

Adjoa Bimi and Fuseini are nowhere to be found, so is their friend who was in custody.

“That was the beginning of the ordeal of our son,” they said. “We have been trying to secure his release until the investigator vanished. Even the investigator’s colleagues could not tell us his whereabouts.” With this new development, the family is wondering if Richard Yeboah shall ever gain his freedom.

Stay tuned for more.