By Ivy Benson
Lawyers for the firebrand New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin-North, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, have withdrawn an exparte application of Habeas Corpus filed before the Human Rights Court, following fresh charges brought against his client for using intemperate language.

The court, presided over by Justice Kofi Essel Mensah, therefore, struck out the application as withdrawn by counsel for the applicant, Mr. Samuel Atta Akyea.

The Human Rights Court had admitted the Assin-North MP to bail and had ordered the police command to appear in court yesterday, April 24, 2012, to justify the continuous detention of Mr. Agyapong beyond the 48 hours without trial mandated by the 1992 Constitution.

But, even before the court order could be obeyed, the MP was arraigned before an Accra Fast Track High Court on fresh charges of treason felony, attempted genocide, and terrorism.

The accused person was, however, granted bail following a request from the defense lawyers for the court to admit him to bail in the sum of GH¢200,000 with one surety to be justified.

It is the case of the state that Mr. Agyapong made certain pronouncements on a radio discussion programme on his radio station, Oman FM, that all Ewes and Ga, two Ghanaian ethnic tribes, should be killed.

His pronouncement followed some disturbances that resulted from the on-going biometric registration of voters, in which a member of his party, who is also a parliamentary candidate, was reportedly assaulted.

The state had initially gone to a District Magistrate Court and requested that the MP be lawfully remanded before the expiration of the constitutionally mandated 48 hours incarceration without trial, but the court rejected the request, and declined jurisdiction, citing procedural inaccuracies adopted by the state, contrary to an informed procedure directed by the Chief Justice that in 1st degree felony cases, including charges brought against the beleaguered MP, should be referred to the Chief Justice to determine which judge to handle.