Sir John, Adorye convicted of contempt, fined GHS7,000

The Supreme Court on Wednesday convicted the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, aka Sir John, and a member of the party’s communications team, Hopeson Adorye of criminal contempt of court and slapped fines of GHS5,000 and GHS2,000 respectively.

They will serve six months and three months respectively in default of the fines.

In addition, Sir John is to sign a bond to be of good behaviour for six months or in default serve six months in jail while Adorye is to be bonded for three months to be of good behaviour or serve a three month jail term.

Sir John and Adorye were hauled before the court for their respective comments on radio that the court found contemptuous. Their lead counsel and former Attorney General, Nii Ayikoi Otoo, made a passionate appeal to the court to temper justice with mercy, admitting that his client’s cases were not looking good.

Presiding judge, Justice William Atuguba who read the sentence, said the nine member panel was constrained by a number of interventions to hand the lenient sentences but that should not becloud the seriousness of the offences and the danger they pose to the nation’s peace.

Sir John

“We find him guilty of intentional criminal contempt of this court. Considering the ready admission of guilt by the contemnor and his nationwide education against contempt of court which we hope is genuine, and the prevailing efforts of the Ghana Peace Council and various religious bodies, the political parties themselves, etc, and the plea of mitigation put in strongly by his counsel Ayikoi Otoo, we are reluctantly restrained from imposing a custodial sentence on the contemnor. We however cannot overlook the fact that the contemnor is a lawyer of 32 years standing and a high profile officer- general secretary - of one of the biggest parties in Ghana and the threat to the public peace which his contemptuous degradation of this court can engender since it gives the impression that the organs of public authority need not be taken seriously. We impose on him a fine of GHS5,000 or in default six months imprisonment. In addition, he should sign a bond to be of good behaviour for six months or in default six months imprisonment. He should also retract and apologise for his contemptuous utterances over the same Oman FM, the same platform on which he indulged in them within 24 hours.”

Hopeson Adorye

“We find him guilty of intentional criminal contempt of this court. Considering that he is a layman unlike Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, and considering his ready admission of his guilt but not forgetting the gravity of his threat and otherwise for the reasons of peace building by the stakeholders of peace referred to in the case of Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, we impose on him the fine of GH₵2,000 or in default three months imprisonment. He should also enter into a bond to be of good behaviour for three months or default three months imprisonment.”

Ahead of passing sentence however, the judges took partisan politics in Ghana and some of its aficionados on a dress down exercise, describing how politics is pursued in the country as ‘illegal’, ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘a political chess game’ that has serious implications for the nation’s peace.

Other words the judges associated with politics included ‘bigotry', while some of the practitioners have ‘grown horns’, ‘bloated egos’ and think themselves ‘stronger than real’. 

Not only were the judges appalled by the state of politics in Ghana, they also condemned the attitude of some to think they are above the law or are special and untouchable, and urged party leaders to rein in their members and reprimand those who engage in what is undesirable.

The court said it had a duty to point the right way and protect the masses who are usually the victims when violence break out as a result of the bigotry of a few individuals.

Story by Isaac Yeboah/Graphic.com.gh/Ghana