Bench Warrant For Betty, IGP

Betty Mould-Iddrisu

An Accra Fast Track High Court presided over by Justice Uuter Paul Derry has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould-Iddrisu and the Inspector General of Police, Paul Tawiah Quaye, for refusing to appear before him on a contempt application filed against them.

The two state officials are in trouble over their refusal to release a detainee who has been in detention for five years.

The judge was forced to issue the bench warrant on June 24, 2010 after he ordered the release of a certain Emmanuel Benjamin who filed a habeas corpus challenging his continued detention for five years without trial which the state and police failed to comply with.

Neither the Attorney General nor the IGP appeared in court. They failed also to send representatives to the court even though they had been served to appear on the contempt case.

The two respondents, after the application for habeas corpus was filed, failed to appear in court and file any response, and the judge, after hearing the application, ordered the release of the applicant on grounds that his continuous detention was an infringement on his fundamental human right.

Before giving his ruling, the trial judge had adjourned the case on some occasions to see if the two senior state officials could at least respond, but they did not.  

The judge therefore ordered that the suspect should be released immediately but the police refused to release him; so his counsel, Uche Nwosu of Legal Consult, was said to have gone to meet the officers in charge of Railway Police Station where the applicant was detained and subsequently went to see some senior police officers at the Police Headquarters, who allegedly indicated their unpreparedness to release the suspect.

Counsel therefore filed an application for contempt of court and served the A-G and IGP but they made no attempt to appear and answer the contempt charges.

The trial judge even personally sent a message to the A-G's Department through two female lawyers, Adwoa Obeng and Davina Perry, who confirmed they had sent the message to the office, but there was still no response from the A-G.

The judge was compelled to issue the bench warrant, saying “the respondents have been issued with the motion for contempt and subsequently been reminded but they have given no reason to this court and failed to appear, I therefore issue a bench warrant for their arrest”.

By Fidelia Achama