Disobedience to court order? Never! – Lawyer shocked state refused Afoko bail

Stretching out his hand and a finger for emphasis, law lecturer Kofi Abotsi was emphatic on JoyNews show, Newsfile, no one should be allowed to disobey a court order under any circumstances.

He was referring the saga between the state and a murder suspect who was refused bail despite a High Court order in March 2019.

The murder suspect, Gregory Afoko ended up spending more than 120 days on remand, an action that nearly attracted a criminal conviction of contempt for the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department Maame Tiwaa Addo Danquah and the IGP David Apeatu.

Photo:Inspector-General of Police, David Asante Apeatu and Director-General of Criminal Investigations Department, Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah

The refusal to grant Afoko bail is as a result of a tug of war between the High court registry on one side and the Chief State Attorney plus the police on the other.

It was the court registrar who processed Gregory Afoko for bail. According to the court proceedings, he was satisfied that the surety’s land title brought as justification was genuine.

He said he saw the original copy, made photocopies and asked the Lands Commission to authenticate it, which turned out to be the property of the surety.

But the police is not convinced and want to examine the original copy of the land tittle deed. There is evidence, Kweku Baako said, of suspects and sureties absconding after using fake documents to secure bail. It has happened to at least ten cases, Baako claimed.

Ten times bitten, one time shy, it seems. But lawyers for Afoko see this as frustrating a court order.

The Police who would have to search and find Afoko if he escapes, was unmoved.

The action of the police is backed by veteran journalist Kweku Baako who standing against a tide of criticisms aimed at the Attorney-General’s Department and the Police.

Baako has said he disagrees with the court position affirming the authenticity of the surety’s documents. “The process [used to determine the vailidity of the documents] is defective”, he insisted.

Standing with the tide however, former Dean of GIMPA Law School maintained that “disagreeing with a court order is allowed, disobedience, never!”

Kofi Abotsi said the police may have genuine concerns about the potential of the murder suspect to abscond but “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and insisted, the disobedience of the police is wrong.

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