Nana Obiri Boahen
Private legal practitioner, Nana Obiri Boahen has hauled Major Richard Opoku Adusei, Army Commander of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) before a Sunyani High Court for contempt.
The applicant wants the court to imprison the military officer for disrespecting an order of interlocutory injunction restraining all parties from developing a four building plot of land which is currently a subject of litigation.
He argued that the conduct of Major Adusei constitutes a willful and malicious intent to scandalize the administration of justice by ignoring and treating the application for the grant of interlocutory injunction with gross disregard and impunity.
Mr. Boahen who is also the Deputy General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had on March 17, 2015 caused a writ of summons to be issued against the respondent and three others- the Attorney-General, one Mr. Burkina (a Caterpillar driver) and Kweku Frimpong Manso, brother of the Paramount Chief of Techiman following the destruction of his five thousand-six inches blocks; 10 trips of sand; four trips of chippings among others on the said land.
The applicant claims the land was gifted to him by the Elders of the Tuobodom Stool after successfully defending three of its indigenes in a taboo related case at the Techiman Circuit Court in 1992.
In an affidavit in support of the contempt application, the Enso Nyame Ye Chambers lawyer was emphatic that regrettably and strangely Major Adusei who is supposed to know better by virtue of his position in the GAF has treated the application with a scornful disdain.
Mr. Boahen stated that work is ongoing on the plot in dispute by the respondent who as an Army Officer has instructed, directed and instigated well-armed soldiers to parade and guard the land whilst work is being done.
The NPP Scribe stated the respondent is using his position as a senior military officer to wage and pursue his conduct of lawlessness and blatant disregard for law and order, a presumptuous conduct which is not only inimical but also an affront to the conferred authority of the court.
The affidavit said “the respondent by this conduct is telling the whole world that to hell with the application for interlocutory injunction because I am a Senior Army Officer.”
Mr. Boahene further contended that Major Adusei’s conduct is one wittingly displayed and maliciously done to poison the stream of justice insisting that the conviction and imprisonment of the respondent would send strong signal to other Senior Officers that we are not in a jungle where the survival of the fittest is the order of the day.
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson