The Law Without Evidence

The bravado, in recent times, of the New Patriotic Party's (NPP's) Delta Force based in the Ashanti Region, is not the toast of majority of the party members, and the party expressed displeasure in the lawless acts of this rather daring vigilante group of youth who sacrificed their lives for victory to be won by the party.

Everybody agreed that those who violently removed the President's appointee from office were befittingly dealt with according to the law in court, after heavy fines were imposed on them.

Then it was the turn of those who enacted a box office type jail break to release their colleagues who were on trial in court. Then, all we heard was that the Attorney-General dropped the case for lack of evidence, and hell broke loose.

On the surface of the issue at hand, it was very unbelievable to imagine how people, alleged to have violently obstructed justice, could be set free, just like that.

Politics read meanings into the matter, as those of us with little or no knowledge about how the law works thought that the Attorney-General, being a government appointee, surely played the party card here.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) was not prepared to consider this, and quickly went public on what they considered an abuse to the rule of law. They courted Ghanaians to move along with them to condemn this act. According to the NDC members of Parliament (MPs), they found it very bizarre for the Attorney-General to say there was lack of evidence to prosecute the group, when there was enough evidence shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.

It was later revealed that a sort of mischief was at play here, and the NDC lawyers knew something Ghanaians did not know. The agenda to make sure that Ghanaians lose faith in this current government, is the highest on the priority list of the NDC. Incidentally, on this one, they again shot themselves in the foot.

Unknowing to most Ghanaians, the Attorney-General could never be faulted if there was no clear-cut evidence to work on. In this case, the prosecutors (the Police) are saying that hard as they tried, or wish they could, there was not enough evidence to support the charges leveled against the accused persons. Meaning, the police is saying that "it looks as if this one was among; no, he looks like someone who was among." Look, and to look like, are not one and the same.

Ghanaians were then educated by legal luminaires, in the persons of one-time Attorney General, Martin Amidu and Ace Ankomah, that under such circumstances, there was nothing the Attorney-General could do, but get off the case. The fact is, to prosecute a criminal case is quite different from dealing with a civil one. The element of proving beyond reasonable doubt is very mandatory, and nothing that simple. The lawyers for the respondent (accused) will like to expose doubts in the submissions of the plaintiff. And what a field day will it be for the accused, if the plaintiff cannot prove anything, but go like "Either; Or; I am not too sure." No attorney worth their salt will dabble with such a case. It is advisable to call it quits and maintain one's credibility, than to go full haul and end up a discredited lawyer.

This is what the NDC lawyers know for a fact, but they are only willing to throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians and create confusion in the country, and undermine the NPP administration. For Christ's sake, it is the duty and sole responsibility of the police to come out with evidence to nail the accused, and that has nothing to do with the Attorney-General. So why blame the government?

At any rate, who is the NDC calling dirty here? We have this landmark case of an NDC guru and major financier called Woyome, who the then government was compelled, under duress, to send to court for cleverly stealing GH¢51 million from the nation's coffers, by way of falsifying claims and coercing honourable ministers of state to believe the state owed him.

Even when the Supreme Court came out to say that Woyome needed to refund that amount, another high court picked the issue up again, and while on the way, the Attorney-General decided to drop the case, because she was not interested anymore. That was then. Now this Attorney-General is not saying that she is not interested in the case, she is saying that the police have not come out with enough evidence for her to do the job properly. The difference is clear, and reasons favour the current Attorney-General more than the past one.

The whole of the Woyome trials were stage-managed, since the strong pieces of evidence needed to nail this smart guy were cleverly ignored.

Woyome holds himself as the financial engineer for Waterville, a construction firm, which won and lost a contract to build stadia under the NPP administration, led by H.E. J.A. Kufuor. When bidding for the contract, Waterville came as a corporate body, and the name Woyome was not enjoined. When the contracted was abrogated, Waterville was paid off, and according to its lawyer, Woyome was given something by the construction firm. Meaning, he was also paid off. He was alleged to have confronted the then Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, for some sending off package. He was, indeed, sent off with the strong statement that he had no contract with the government, and so there was no money for him.

Here, the first strong piece of evidence, if the NDC government had, indeed, wanted to nail Woyome, it was to bring to the dock Kwadwo Mpiani. He could say whether the government had any contract with Woyome.

The second piece of evidence was to invite the Waterville lawyer, who was caught on air swearing that Woyome was paid off by Waterville.

That these two gentlemen were clearly overlooked and not invited to give evidence on the matter, evidently showed the direction the then NDC government wanted the case to go.

Talking about media evidence, and I will refer the NDC to an interview Sefa-Kaye had with Woyome on the Peace FM Kokrokoo talk show. When asked three times whether he had a contract with government, Woyome, who initially evaded the question, had to yield, and stated on air that he had no business with the government to warrant money.

Here are the tales of two Attorney-Generals: One had the power and the mandate to ask the court to invite Hon. Kwadwo Mpiani and the lawyer of Waterville for cross examination, but she did not, and dilly-dallied round the case, and came out saying she was no longer interested. This case involved the illegal transfer of GH¢51 million, which was a loss to the state, and a gain to some greedy wise armed-less robber.

The other was willing to prosecute alleged criminals of the state in court, and was only counting on the police to come out to say this and that fellow were involved, but the police suddenly lost their memory, so she had to drop the case by reason of no evidence. This is a case of a raid in court in the full view of the police who could not arrest the right guys.

Ghanaians can recall, and obviously the NDC had forgotten, that after the Supreme Court had founded three young men guilty of contempt of court and jailed them appropriately and accordingly, the NDC, from gurus to lowest member, petitioned the then President to release the boys or they will not vote for him. The President then came out with a presidential decree to have the boys, popularly known as the Montie Three, to serve a third of the jail term and walk away freely. And yet, in the end they still did not vote for him.

To the NDC, this was not obstruction of justice; this did not call for a re-arrest and re-trial of these boys who threatened to deal with the justices of the Supreme Court, and even to rape the female Chief Justice. And it is this party, the NDC, which originated from the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), which had some members of its leadership killing three judges and a retired army officer. Their crime, the judges reduced the outrageous jail terms of Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) convicts, and the army officer was a witness in court against demonstrating workers.

If the NDC cannot remember the case of the Montie Three, then I am not sure they will remember the sad end of a 70-year old retired accountant of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Nobert Robert Quarshie, who was shot dead in cold blood in January 1987 by W.O. Salifu Amankwah, a pal of the Chairman of the PNDC, H.E. Jerry John Rawlings. Robert was just walking to his destination point and offered no threat to human or property when he was beaten to death by the trigger-happy soldier, in what can best be described as extreme assault and battery.

The court found Salifu Amankwah guilty of murder and sentenced him to death, but Jerry and the PNDC changed it to manslaughter, and later made the criminal walk away free.

These are serious obstructions of justice committed by the NDC and PNDC, and the current opposition party need to consider and compare these with the Delta Force issue, before coming up to condemn anyone. How the MPs and the lawyers of the NDC want a case in law to be dealt with without evidence, is, perhaps, a new phenomenon in the administration of justice, which only they can explain how.

Hon. Daniel Dugan

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