AWOAMEFIA DISPUTE TAKES A NASTY TURN – JUDGE THREATENED

Available information reaching us indicates that the Anlo Awoamefia dispute has taken threatening tones. Credible information from usually reliable sources have it that Justice P. Ofori-Atta handling the contempt case in the Accra Fast Track had received threats and warned in clear language to find a way to get rid of the case, or else….

This is just one strategy in a series of threats and intimidating actions directed at individuals involved in the case in order to scuttle the air-tight case of lawlessness and contempt of court levelled against those charged, some of them NDC gurus. This has posed a major dilemma for the Mills regime which has failed to imprison a single NPP member but is facing the prospect of having some of his top appointees imprisoned for breaking the law! Can anyone imagine sending back to jail Ambassador to Malaysia Abodakpui and Professor Kofi Awoonor? Nothing is therefore being left to chance to influence the normal processes of the judiciary and scuttle the case, we have learned.

Of course, the issue is also a dilemma for many concerned Anlos who had sat on the fence so far even though they knew the truth but kept their mouths sealed just like us, and are now faced with the prospect of having some of their most important chiefs found guilty and probably imprisoned. A fine would not be exactly in place for those already found guilty on same charges of contempt by the Ho High Court in 2003. So if the laws of the land cannot be set aside for these “august” men but obvious law breakers, then it MUST be subverted at all costs, the reasoning goes! The Chief Justice is seen as weak and beleagured and is expected to fall in line. With our Judiciary not showing the guts to see to it that the powerful are punished for their crimes, the stage is being set for people to take the laws into their own hands.

They have been boasting that the pressures and threats brought to bear on the Judge led to his not so peculiar move referring the case to the Chief Justice through the Attorney General's Department to decide on whether the case could be heard by him or by a High Court Judge in Ho, as the defenders are arguing. He has therefore, like Pontius Pilate, passed the buck back, and left the next move to the government, which is expected to bury the case; everything now depends on the fairness and firmness of the Chief Justice, or the dogs shall be let out, we learned from the aggrieved sources to our dismay. Our source chuckled and asked: “if it were you and those people are threatening you, wouldn't you be afraid. He remembers Amedeka and what happened to the judges.” We were stunned by these revelations.

As decent, law abiding and honest Anlos, we deem it paramount to denounce these happenings and bring them to the attention of the whole nation before something nastier happens to disgrace us again. We have been forced to break our silence following the acid attack on Cornelius Ackumey, a relation of Lt Col. Togobo (rtd.) from the Agbeve lineage. The full story of that is on Modernghana.com.

It must be recollected that when the case first went to court, the government security capo Col. Gbevlo Lartey (rtd.) called Lt. Col. Togobo (rtd.), the main plaintiff, to the dreaded Blue Gate and rudely warned him to withdraw the case. Of course, the old soldier was not intimidated any bit and the case continued. The next step, we learned, was to get Chief Inspector Lordonu to arrest Lawyer Attah Akyea whose chamber is handling the case on behalf of the aggrieved parties, on spurious grounds linked to a case which was already before a Commercial court in which he acted as lawyer for the complainant. Of course, this action received sound condemnation from all and sundry but we are revealing for the first time the real reason for the “weird” arrest of Lawyer Samuel Atta Akyea while in court. His arrest was orchestrated by forces in government using the Police to support the former VR Police Commissioner Patrick Agboba now posing as the Awoamefia of Anlo. He is also a member of the NDC security council too.

The question all sensible people must ask is, if they have nothing to fear, why are they doing their utmost to torpedo the case by threatening people and starting to throw acid at people who are simply pursuing justice through peaceful means? If Agboba is indeed entitled to the Awoamezi - which many of us in Anlo know he is not but have closed our mouths as an issue for the Adzorvia clan to decide even though we know powerful non-Adzorvia people are pulling the strings - why have they bribed the Volta Regional House of Chiefs members under Togbega Gabusu and rendered it a useless body in resolving this case? Why have they also got Togbe Afede the current President to compromise himself by interfering in the execution of another interlocutory injunction to stop the purported out-dooring of Agboba on 21st February?

We believe all sensible Anlos must wake up from sleeping on the fence and take a morally upright stand in this dispute before it begun to spiral downward, as it surely will if justice is not done. The situation can now be described as morally debased, fetrid and the calm before the storm. It may appear to be calm but with the recent death of Agbonugla Seth Kwawukume, one of the plaintiffs who has been very crucial in maintaining the peace by restraining the youths, for which he was wrongly accused of receiving money from Nyonyo in order to stop them from taking actions which might disturb the peace, for instance, disrupt the 21st February anomaly which could have led to more deaths in Anloga, anything can happen.

We urge all with information which they are afraid to reveal in public to contact us. We shall reveal and damn the consequences. Enough with the chicanery and political intrusion into and manipulation of chieftaincy affairs.

X.A.
E-mail: xagbenyo