General News of Tuesday, 14 June 2005

Source: Chronicle

NPP, agents described as a bunch of cowards

Wenchi, June 14 (Chronicle) -- An Ashanti Regional representative of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), who is also the Deputy Regional Secretary for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Yao Doe-Tamakloe, said it was a heinous crime on the part of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to claim all the accolades of democracy and promise to uphold human rights principles only to resort to acts of cowardice.

Mr. Doe-Tamakloe made this known to The Chronicle at Wenchi, after the Wenchi High Court, presided over by his Lordship Frank Amoah, had granted Mr. Sulemana Owusu, the NDC youth organizer for the Techiman Constituency, who was remanded in prison custody on Thursday last wek by the Techiman Magistrate Court, presided over by Mr. George Krofa Addae, over an assault case.

He described the NPP government and all its agents as a bunch of cowards, saying this was from the fact that an NPP serial caller, Emmanuel Atoh Ampiah, and his gang having attacked and beaten up a responsible person and bitten his fingers should turn round and put him behind bars.

He said that all these acts of government reflect their desire to create chaos and anarchy in this country to cover up their (NPP) shameful and ill deeds.

Mr. Tamakloe however assured that brave men like Sulemana Owusu and his colleagues would continue to defend the tenets of democracy even at the peril of their lives.

He on behalf of the National CJA expressed their sympathy with the local CJA in Techiman and the Brong Ahafo region at large and called on all men of goodwill to speak out vehemently against this act of injustice.

In passing out the Judgment, the High Court Judge, Mr. Frank Amoah, said it was at the discretion of every court to grant or refuse bail in an offence which is assault, but shared a different view with the magistrate court at Techiman who had refused to give bail to the accused person on the basis that he (the accused person) would interfere in the court proceedings, adding that it was no where in the law books of this country.

He however granted the accused person a bail of ?5million with one surety. The Counsel for the accused person, Mr. John Owusu Agyemang, told The Chronicle that he moved the motion on the High Court to grant the accused person bail, because the magistrate court at the lower court erred in refusing to grant his client bail in an offence which was assault and for that matter misdemeanor, an offence for which the criminal code does not deny bail.

He said the magistrate court judge again erred because the reason given that the accused could interfere in court procedures is nowhere found in the laws of the country, explaining that the magistrate court judge must have got confused person, because the police after their investigations had even granted the accused person bail, which he (the accused) did not abscond but went to court as the police had ordered.

The CJA Local Convener at Techiman, Mumuni Saaka Adam, was grateful to the High Court Judge for the application of proper justice to the case, and urged all the CJA fans to remain resolute and determined.

He assured them that they would certainly stand up and fight for the rights of the good people of Ghana.

Meanwhile the case would still be attended at the Techiman Magistrate Court this Thursday for another hearing.