Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie
The former Board Chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA), Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, has petitioned the Chief Justice to see to it that Justice Eric Kyei Baffour recuses himself from the ongoing trial of him and four others before his court.
His petition is premised on a video by social media commentator, Kevin Ekow Taylor, which was posted on a Facebook wall called “With All Due Respect”.
Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie in his petition alleged that he fears he will not get justice if the judge continues to hear the matter because of unsubstantiated allegations made in the Facebook post.
“Your Lordship, my documented fears/anxieties about not getting a fair trial under the Lordship Justice Eric Kyei Baffour seem to have been heightened by a recent development as borne out by a video being circulated in the social media which was created by a journalist by the name of Kevin Ekow Taylor. In this video, Kevin Ekow Taylor made some serious allegations against Justice Eric Kyei Baffour regarding the NCA case. These allegations against Justice Eric Kyei Baffour are verifiable through an investigation that can be conducted by your Lordship,” said the petition.
It continued that, “In this said video, Kevin Ekow Taylor made the following “summarized” allegations that Justice Eric Kyei Baffour is being manipulated by this government to achieve a desirable/favourable outcome for the government. His Lordship Justice Eric Kyei Baffour in one of his earlier court proceedings in 2019, made a statement to the effect that “he represents the state and therefore will not tolerate these foolish applications” this was when my defence counsel had made an application on my behalf. “This allegation made by Kevin Ekow Taylor against Justice Eric Kyei Baffour as being compromised has raised some serious concerns/anxieties which will border on miscarriage of justice if Justice Eric Kyei Baffour does not recuse himself from this case. Hence, my humble plea to your Lordship for a thorough investigation,” the petition claimed.
Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie in the concluding part of his petition added “your Lordship, based on all these unfortunate incidents of anger expressed by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour towards me, in addition to the already documented incidents of glaringly bias behaviour of Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, I have come to a reasonable conclusion that I will NOT get a fair and just trial under the Lordship of Justice Eric Kyei Baffour.”
Bench Warrant
An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour last week issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a social media commentator, Kelvin Ebo Taylor, who is believed to be domiciled in the United States.
The warrant comes at the back of certain derogatory statements made by Taylor on social media which, according to the court, has put the justice system and the person of the judge in disrepute.
In a recent post, the social media commentator on his Facebook page titled “With All Due Respect” did run a commentary with the headline “The Men in Red, Tainted Judiciary” where he used the opportunity to make unsubstantiated allegations against Justice Kyei Baffour.
He made a wild claim that Justice Kyei Baffour who was among a number of High Court judges recently promoted to the Court of Appeal was being used as a conduit by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to prosecute some former NDC government officials and touched on one of the criminal cases before Justice Kyei Baffour’s court where Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie and four others are being tried for allegedly causing financial loss to the state over the purchase of Pegasus cybersecurity equipment.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak