Habeas corpus application in Alhaji Abagre Seidu case dropped
The High Court in Accra has struck out the application for habeas corpus filed on behalf of Alhaji Seidu Abagre in relation to the Bawku chieftaincy issue following the filing of a written report by the Attorney-General in compliance with an earlier order of the court.
The application, which sought the release of the applicant and questioned the legality of his detention, was withdrawn after counsel indicated that developments in the matter had overtaken the relief being sought.
The court, which sat last Monday, was presided over by Justice Halimah El-Alawa Abdul-Baasit.
Facts
At the last adjourned date, the court had directed the Attorney-General to file a report to assist it in determining the habeas corpus application, particularly on the circumstances surrounding the applicant’s arrest and continued detention in connection with the Bawku chieftaincy dispute.
When the case was called, counsel for the applicant, Martin Kpebu, informed the court that the Attorney-General had complied with the order and filed the required report.
He told the court that upon a review of the report and in view of subsequent developments, the application had been overtaken by events.
Counsel explained that the applicant had since been arraigned before a court on criminal charges arising from the same subject matter, placing him within the regular criminal justice process.
In the circumstances, he said, the habeas corpus application, which was intended to challenge the lawfulness of the applicant’s detention, was no longer necessary.
The Deputy Attorney-General did not object to the withdrawal.
The court accordingly struck out the habeas corpus application as withdrawn.
Alhaji Seidu Abagre, a 79-year-old retired teacher and claimant in the longstanding Bawku chieftaincy dispute, was removed from Bawku on December 24, 2025, by personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces as part of efforts to implement the mediation recommendations of the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
The mediation, aimed at ending decades of tension between rival factions over the Bawku skin, reaffirmed the position of Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II as the lawful Bawku Naba and recommended that Alhaji Abagre be reassigned to another traditional role or, if he chose to remain in Bawku, stay only as an ordinary citizen.
Following his removal, Abagre was taken into custody by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), prompting his lawyers to file a habeas corpus application on January 5, 2026, arguing that he had been held without a clear legal basis and without access to counsel in the initial days after his arrest.
Subsequently, formal charges were laid against him, and court proceedings began, shifting the focus from the habeas corpus challenge to the substantive criminal matter now before the High Court.
