The Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Dr Mustapha Ahmed has been sentenced to seven days imprisonment by the Accra High Court for contempt of court. The court had previously granted a perpetual injunction restraining the former minister from trespassing on a particular piece of land, but he violated the order.
As a result, the court also fined him GH¢12,000 or in default serve 30 days in prison. If the fine is paid, GH¢5,000 of it will be paid to Kofi Ammoah Kwafo, the man who initiated the contempt application against Dr Ahmed, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the Director-General of Logistics of the Ghana Armed Forces.
The contempt case stems from a land litigation case dating back six years ago, in which Dr Ahmed, a former Member of Parliament for Ayawaso North, sold land to Mr Kwafo in 2000, only to later repossess it under the pretext of having made a mistake. The case was heard in the Financial and Economic Crime Division 2 of the Accra High Court and presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe.
A man named Mr. Kwafo filed a contempt application against the Chief of Defence Staff and the Director-General of Logistics. This was due to GAF personnel who were occupying a property built on land that was in dispute and was resisting the execution of the court’s judgement. However, Justice Asare-Botwe, a Court of Appeal judge who was sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, noted in her judgement that neither the Chief of Defence Staff nor the Director-General of Logistics had been personally served with copies of the court’s land litigation judgement of 2019.
Mr. Kwafo’s affidavit and written address stated that the respondents’ actions brought the administration of justice into disrepute by defying the authority of the court. For instance, Mr. Kwafo argued that the first respondent had supposedly disposed of the property to the GAF in 2017, but the document was executed in 2018 and the application for registration was made in 2021 when the court had already handed down its judgement. This case was reported on www.myjoyonline.com.
According to a report on myjoyonline.com, Mr Kwafo, represented by counsel Mr Kwaku Osei Asare, has accused officers of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) of being in contempt of court for resisting the execution of a court judgement.
However, counsel for Dr Ahmed, Mr Christopher A. Fynn, has stated that his client cannot be found in contempt as there is no evidence to show that he had breached any court orders or directions. He also denied allegations of fraud and backdating the assignment of the sub-matter to the GAF, stating that this was an attempt to enforce the judgement in a way that is not prescribed by court rules.
The former minister has responded by claiming that the application brought against him and other respondents is incompetent and intended to incite the court against them.
The Chief of Defence Staff and Director of Logistics have also argued that they cannot be held in contempt as they were not properly served with a writ of possession and had not been parties to the suit. They believe that the method of posting the judgement on the property and writing to the GAF was not a proper procedure for notifying them of the judgement.
Source: myjoyonline.com.
