Is this Mampong in Ashanti High Court Registrar not Craftily Subverting Justice?

I had resolutely determined not to publish an article for public consumption until I have finished writing a document/story that may be of wider national interest. This said document could well fit into what is my descriptive memoir. However, I have said that from time to time, I may be compelled to come out to update the worldwide public on the ongoing Kumawu chieftaincy dispute hence this publication.

Unless His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s campaign promise to fight to curtail or exterminate corruption in Ghana was a mere political gimmick, I would expect to see some concrete action taken with regard to this publication. I cannot sit by while corruption keeps ramifying and intensifying under the presidency of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, a self-styled anti-corruption Czar.

Obviously, the president is not Omniscient. Therefore, he will not under any circumstance be aware of all the nooks and crannies where corrupt practices are being carried out by Government officials, public service personnel and our traditional chiefs to the detriment of public interest and at the expense of the poor Ghanaian masses. Having said that, I will expect him to act once instances of corrupt practices by public servants have been conveyed to his attention.

On two occasions have I come to suspect two court registrars who have resorted to actions tantamount to perverting or subverting the course of justice. One of them hid a certain vital document which finally culminated in the would-be guilty party in a case being set free by a High Court judge with costs running into thousands of Cedis awarded against the would-have-been innocent party. This particular case involved the Nifahene of Kumawu (Baffour Atta Tweneboa) who doubles as the chief of Kumawu-Bodomase. He was served a notice of interlocutory injunction barring him from participating in any capacity in any attempted swearing-in of one Dr Yaw Sarfo as a Kumawu chief-elect.

Despite signing for the notice served on him by a bailiff, he, in a few days later, proceeded to sit down at Kumawu palace in the capacity of a Kumawu kingmaker to be sworn to by Dr Yaw Sarfo as a Kumawu chief-elect. Subsequently, he was served a writ of contempt of court. The long and short of this story is that he denied ever being served that writ. The lawyer for the plaintiff could not trace his copy of the notice of serving. The lawyer caused a search to be made by the Kumasi High Court Registrar. The registrar filled the search form indicating that there was no record of the court serving him that notice. Following this, two different High Court judges set Baffour Atta Tweneboa free. An appeal filed at the Appeal Court against him emerging victorious without any blemish of contempt of court fell flat for lack of evidence cum damnable professional deficiencies.

However, a registrar at the court had hidden the docket in which the entries of servings of the notice of interlocutory injunctions on Baffour Atta Tweneboa (Kumawu Nifahene), Asanteman Council, Nana Kwasi Baffoe (Kumawu Akwamuhene), Nana Kodua Peprah II (Kumawu Kontrihene) and Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, were made. Had he not done that but provided the correct answers to the search, the verdict pronounced in favour of Baffour Atta Tweneboa could have been different.

I have the evidence of the entries on my WhatsApp page and in printouts as I speak now. I can tender them in evidence to the General Legal Council, the President of Ghana and whichever authority so desires. At the opportune time, I shall publish them for all to see as I normally do. I am never ready to condone any acts of illegalities perpetrated and perpetuated by the public servants, traditional leaders and politicians in whom we have entrusted our welfare.

In the second instance which is current and ongoing, the Mampong in Ashanti High Court registrar is deliberately playing delay tactics and maliciously presiding over the fade-printing of certain pages of documents required for appeal purposes.

Three Appeal Court judges sitting on the case of the accusatorial fraudulent gazetting of Dr Yaw Sarfo, now going by the stool name Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua, as the paramount chief of Kumawu traditional area, had ordered for the properly reprinting of seven pages of documents of which the plaintiffs’ counsels are claiming not to be readable because of the fading ink. Their decision taken on Monday, 25^th June 2018, was in concertation with the plaintiffs and the defendants’ lawyers.

The registrar, one Mr Adams, instead of ensuring that the requisite demands are met and in time, is taking months to do it. He summoned all the opposing lawyers to Mampong in Ashanti on Thursday, 22^nd November 2018, and again, agreed to an out of the blue request by one of the plaintiffs’ counsels. This request could be said to be cunningly intended to delay the case even further. This said counsel or lawyer, has said that pages 114, 115 and “Exhibit A09” of the bound documents presented to the Appeal Court on which the hearing and ruling of the case will be based are faded. However, the just mentioned pages were not part of those concertedly agreed to be legibly photocopied again. It took him months to come out with similarly fading pages but which were not part of those ordered to be remade by the Appeal Court Judges.

He had requested every lawyer involved in the case to bring their original bound documents instead of using the Mampong in Ashanti High Court's original copies to make the seven pages and the just stated additional pages that are supposed to have faded.

To quench my curiosity, I would like to ask the following questions subsequent upon which I shall by this publication copy in the General Legal Council to reaffirm my complaint lodged with them a few days ago regarding this issue.

1. Why should the registrar agree to the untimely request by one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers with intent to delay the constitution of the properly bound case-documents to be submitted to the Appeal Court for the trial to start?
2. Has the registrar the authority to defy the concerted decision by the three Appeal Court Judges, the Counsels for the plaintiffs and the Counsel for the defendants to accept to do other pages other than, or in addition to, those unanimously agreed on 25^th June 2018?
3. In accepting to do the additional three pages as mentioned above, why can’t he use the legible original copies from the High Court’s file, but rather equally near-faded ones from where I cannot tell?
4. Why should the registrar give the said near-faded additional pages 114, 115 and “Exhibit A09” to the defendants’ representative to find an internet cafe that can possibly photocopy them so as for them to become readable and then distribute them to the lawyer(s) requesting for them?
5. Is it the duty of the defendants’ counsel or their representative to do the photocopies as it is in this case, or it is the duty of the registrar?
6. Is it not that until the photocopies are made and they are legible, and acceptable to the demanding lawyer, the registrar will never send the documents to the Appeal Court for the case to get started?
7. From the attitude of the registrar, is there not the establishment of detection of an element of collusion to intentionally delay the case for reasons only best known to him and his collaborators?
8. Are court registrars in Ghana allowed to do as they want when they want to sabotage the delivery of justice without any higher authority punishing them for their actions? Is justice delayed not justice denied?

This Appeal Court case has come about as a result of a High Court ruling on the “Motions on Notice”, “Statements of Claims” and counter-“Statements of Claims” etc., by both the plaintiffs and the defendants’ lawyers that went against the defendants. The defendants were, Kumawuhene Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua (in private life as Dr Yaw Sarfo), Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Registrars of Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs and the National House of Chiefs, Kumasi. This ruling was about Dr Yaw Sarfo’s allegedly fraudulent gazetting as the paramount chief of Kumawu traditional area.

The defendants then filed for appeal. In the appeal, they have now become plaintiffs. After serving the now defendants a “Notice of Appeal”, the plaintiffs for four solid months had not filed their Statements of Claims contesting the unfavourable verdict pronounced against their “Motions on Notice” and their “Statements of Claims” at the High Court. When they realised that the defendants had resorted to some legal means to speed up the process of appeal, they, on the other hand, are resorting to the issue of fading photocopies of documents to delay the case.

Be that as it may, is there not a way to compel the High Court registrar not to traitorously succumb to the wishes of the plaintiffs’ lawyer(s) to scupper the chance of seeing justice delivered in time?

As a person avowed to side with the truth to ensure that no Ghanaian is denied justice and their human rights because of their low or poverty-ridden status in the society, I am putting out this publication not only to alert the public to the dismal corrupt attitudes by our court registrars but also, lodge a complaint with the General Legal Council against the registrar in question. He has to be investigated and dealt with accordingly.

With me, until I see justice delivered, the dust will never settle. I shall escalate this case to any level I deem appropriate.

We have the American President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean President Kim Jong Un, all speaking ill about Ghana and Africa because of our infatuation with baneful corruption of which the attitude of the registrar in question is no exemption.

Rockson Adofo