GBA takes swipe at BNI for flouting court orders
The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has condemned the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for defying a court order with respect to the bail granted the three retired South African police officers, who have been repatriated for organising illegal military training.
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“The GBA views the flouting of the bail orders of the Circuit Court, Accra, as a threat to the rule of law and condemns that conduct in no uncertain terms,” it noted.
The GBA’s sentiments are similar to those expressed by Mr Atta Akyea, one of the lawyers for the three South Africans.
On March 24, 2016, he described the BNI’s action as an abuse of the rights of Major Ahmed Shaik Hazis (retd), 54; Warrant Officer Denver Dwayhe, 33, and Captain Mlungiseli Jokani, 45.
The Circuit Court in Accra, presided over by Ms Patricia Quansah, on March 24, 2016, granted GHC20,000 bail to each of the South Africans but the BNI officials whisked them away amidst protest from their lawyers.
The GBA in a statement issued in Accra yesterday and signed by its President, Mr Benson Nutsukpui, said “the GBA wishes to express its regret and grave displeasure at the conduct of the BNI in flouting the orders of the Circuit Court, Accra granting bail to the three former South African Police Officers.
“It is against the rule of law for any person or institution to flout the orders of a court of competent jurisdiction especially, under our current constitutional dispensation,” the statement noted.
According to the GBA, the BNI, by sending the South African nationals to court had “in law surrendered their custody to the court to decide on whether to remand them (and if so, into which custody) or to grant them bail.”
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It argued that once the court granted bail, the three foreigners should have been released, “as long as they were able to meet their bail conditions.”
“By removing them from the court premises without allowing them to begin the process of fulfilling their bail conditions, the BNI acted in flagrant breach and disrespect of the Constitution,” the statement noted.
Minister of the Interior
Taking note of the Interior Minister’s press release of March 28, 2016, in which he suggested that the BNI, in not releasing the three foreigners to the Court Registrar, were acting in accordance with a request from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to interrogate the accused persons, the GBA said “respectfully, this is no justification for the illegality that occurred.”
Buttressing its position on the feebleness of the minister’s justification of the BNI’s act, the GBA held that the GIS, could have appeared in court that day to make that request to the judge.
“No individual or institution has the power to flout orders of the court in this manner. The GBA notes that any system that allows an individual or institution to disobey orders made by a court of competent jurisdiction simply creates room for anarchy, chaos and lawlessness,” the statement noted.
This act of lawlessness, the GBA noted, “certainly has no place under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.”
The GBA, therefore, called on the “citizenry, institutions and agencies to follow due process and show adequate respect to the various institutions and bodies created under our 1992 Constitution.”
Background
The presence of the three retired South African police officers, who were arrested at Agona Duakwa in the Central Region for allegedly engaging in activities with national security implications, led to the arrest and questioning of Capt. Edmund Kojo Koda (retd), the head of the security detail of the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and Captain Kwesi Acquah (retd), the owner of Delta Security Services.
They were said to be training 15 young men in various security drills, including unarmed combat, weapon handling, VIP protection techniques and rapid response exercises for the NPP.
Repatriation
The three South Africans were put on board South African Airways flight number 210, which departed the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) around 9:26 a.m. on March 29, 2016 for Johannesburg.
Their entry visas were revoked by the GIS.
Officials from the GIS and a security detail from the BNI escorted the three to the aircraft.