Court throws out CHRAJ’s contempt case against Freddie Blay

The High Court in Accra has acquitted and discharged the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Freddie Blay, of contempt charges on grounds that the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) acted incompetently.

According to the court presided over by Mr Justice George Koomson, officials of CHRAJ acted incompetently in an attempt to serve Mr Blay with the petition presented by the Coalition for Social Justice.

The coalition filed a petition in July 2018 asking CHRAJ to investigate Mr Blay for the procurement of somevehicles but the CHRAJ has for the past one year not been able to serve Mr Blay with the petition.

CHRAJ claimed Mr Blay had been evading receipt of documents seeking his response to allegations that he procured 275 buses for his party through corruption.

CHRAJ also alleged Mr Blay failed to honour subpoenas but Mr Blay rejected the claims and rather accused the CHRAJ of politicking.

Issues

The court also held that CHRAJ failed to prove that the letters and subpoena were served on Freddie Blay.

It also wondered why MrBlay, a public figure, was served at the NPP office and not the offices of the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC).

The court found the attitude of CHRAJ appalling and incompetent, adding that such mediocrity should not be encouraged.

The court considered whether or not Mr Blay was served with the subpoena and letters; whether or not Mr Blay's action was contemptuous of the commission and whether or not he refused to respond to the subpoena and letters.

It said that Mr Blay denied receiving any court processes and further noted that the onus was on CHRAJ to provide evidence of service on Mr Blay.

The court accordingly dismissed the contempt application against Mr Blay and awarded cost of GH¢5,000 against CHRAJ.

Background

Mr Blay, in June 2019, challenged the contempt application and described it as “fatally flawed and procedurally incompetent”.

CHRAJ dragged Mr Blay to court over allegations that he had persistently failed to respond to several requests from the human rights institution to furnish it with information on the 275 buses he was supposed to have brought into the country and donated to NPP constituency offices in the run-up to the party’s National Delegates Conference last year.

CHRAJ prayed the court for an order to commit Mr Blay into prison custody for disobeying its lawful requests but Mr Blay said CHRAJ had not served him with any process for him to respond.