Court finds IGP guilty of contempt, sets Oct 25 to hand down sentence

Ghana’s Inspector General of Police, David Asante-Appeatu, is expected to be sentenced on October 25 by the Accra High Court which has found him guilty of contempt for disobeying a court order to provide Police escort. The court had given the IGP an order to provide police escort to assist with the eviction of occupants of 12 blocks of flats at Madina REDCO in Accra, Graphic Online reported. The occupants to be evicted from the flats that are under dispute were police personnel. According to the Graphic report, “the court is livid with the IGP because he disobeyed its orders to provide security for the execution of the order, which is for the sale of the 12 blocks of flats at REDCO”. The case has traveled from 1988 when a woman, Mrs Aggrey, now deceased, filed the case against REDCO Company Limited. Subsequent to the demise of the woman, Samuel Aggrey Jnr and Augustine Gyekye took over the case. Mrs Aggrey argued that REDCO failed to pay an amount of money owed her. She won the case as the court in its judgment attached the property; the 12 blocks flats at Madina in Accra. It was decided that if REDCO failed to pay the money, the court will sell the property to retrieve the money for her. REDCO appealed the decision and lost and even before the court ruled on the matter, REDCO gave out the property to the Ghana Police Service to accommodate some of its officers. Along the line, the Police Service reportedly purchased the property from REDCO and claimed ownership. The applicants then went back to court to seek an order for the police to vacate the property and rather help to execute the High Court order to sell the property. But the police failed to do that and instead claimed ownership of the property. The lawyers then filed another case citing the IGP for contempt. The court presided over by Justice Daniel Mensah held that once the flat was in the custody of the court, it was illegal for anyone to sell or buy the property and that the police should have done due diligence. Graphic Online]]>