Kissi Agyebeng and Col Kwadwo Damoah (rtd)
THE BATTLE line appears to have been drawn between the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng and the immediate past Commissioner of Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Col Kwadwo Damoah (rtd) as they prepare to face off in court.
Col Damoah and a Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Joseph Adu Kyei, have sued the Special Prosecutor and one other for maligning them in the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) investigation into the Labianca report saga.
They are asking the court to dismiss the investigative report by the Special Prosecutor into the activities of Labianca Company Limited, a frozen foods importing company.
However, even before the case will commence, the Special Prosecutor has fired a salvo raising questions about the propriety of the appointment of Col Damoah to the position of Customs Commissioner.
Mr. Agyebeng indicted President Akufo-Addo for appointing an unqualified person for the GRA top job.
According to the SP, Col Damoah having been dismissed from the Army had lost every right to be appointed Customs Commissioner.
“In any case, if the assertions of the applicants to paragraph 8 of the affidavit in support of the application is to be taken seriously, then the first applicant, (Col Damoah) who was previously dismissed from the Ghana Armed Forces, could not have been appointed to the position of Commissioner of the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority,” the Special Prosecutor said in an affidavit in opposition to the suit.
“Gathered intelligence of the first respondent (SP) revealed that the first applicant was a dismissed former officer of the Ghana Armed Forces and that his tenure of appointment as the Commissioner of the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority had long expired or elapsed but he was still holding on and being kept in that position without lawful authority. It was imperative for the first respondent to apprise itself of the veracity of the intelligence in respect of the first applicant, whose affairs were being investigated, so as to make recommendations to the appropriate authorities and the Public Services Commission. Thus, the first applicant was directed by the Special Prosecutor to produce his letter of appointment,” he added.
However, checks by DAILY GUIDE revealed that the military officer was rather retired from the Army per a later dated November 4, 2009.
“Col K. Damoah is to retire from the Armed Forces with effect from April 3, 2010. He will be “Honourably Released” under Item 5 (b) (iii) of the Table to Article 15.01 of reference A,” a letter releasing him from the military said.
The Special Prosecutor also raised doubts about Col Damoah’s professional qualification as a lawyer.
“On this score, the first respondent contends that it is regrettably unbecoming of the first applicant, who claims to be a lawyer who settled the processes of the application for filing as having advised the first applicant to depose in the affidavit supporting the application that the first applicant rightfully ignoring a directive from a statutory authority because that statutory body did not state the statutory provision for the directive. It is professionally unhappy for a lawyer to sit in his chambers and constitute himself into a court by advising his client to ignore the orders and directives authority in question does not appear to have such powers.
“One the contrary, it is the duty of a lawyer to take steps to specifically challenge the directives in the appropriate forum – for the simple reason that ignoring the directives and orders of a statutory authority portends the clear and present danger of being melted in dire legal consequences. Thus considered, a lawyer who advises his client to ignore the directives and orders of statutory authorities dangerously leads the client into legal problem,” he indicated.
BY Fortune Alimi