Yesterday The Superior Court of New Jersey is reported to have awarded investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas $18 million in damages in a defamation lawsuit that was brought against a former NPP Presidential aspirant and Member of Parliament Kennedy Agyapong, and one other.
Meanwhile, a similar suit by Anas is reported to have been brought against the same person in Ghana, was dismissed by the Ghanaian High Court.
While not having any opinion on the two cases, I am strengthened to call for a thorough legal and forensic audits and investigations into some of the rulings, orders, and judgements given at the Winneba High and District courts, especially cases between the period 2018 and 2024.
From where I sit, and what I have observed, sometimes some of the rulings, orders, and judgments in the Winneba courts looks shocking.
I participated in both the 2020 and the 2024 parliamentary elections in Ghana. The overarching objective for my involvement in these elections is to attempt to make a larger societal impact, over and above what I have already done in my life.
However, through these political journeys, I have had some useful experiences which has made me determined to help reform, or refine Ghana’s political, governance and democratic processes, and I hope to use the court system, as well as advocacy platforms to achieve these goals.
The experiences I have gathered in just six years, just by virtue of participating in elections in Effutu, could be equated to a never-ending narrative in our democracy. As a matter of common knowledge, Effutu has been described in recent times by many as a crime scene, way beyond state capture.
In 2020, during my first attempt at parliamentary elections, a person, Benjamin Ackah, deliberately deposited money into my bank account, and turned round to accuse me of stealing money from his Consolidated Bank of Ghana account at Lapaz in Accra, into my GCB Bank account in Winneba.
The Ghana Police Service in Winneba, then led by Chief Superintendent Samuel Asiedu Okanta, quickly obtained a court order to obtain my bank statement (the destination of the money), arrested and prosecuted me unjustly, without investigating the source of the money and how it was paid into my account.
I have since sued the Ghana Police Service for GHC20million for malicious prosecution.
In the history of the Effutu constituency, no woman has ever contested the parliamentary seat. In the year 2024, a young woman, Louisa Buabeng, filed to contest the seat as an independent candidate.
Louisa was quickly arrested, frivolously charged with an offence of a related person, Osama, being in possession of third party voters ID cards. Louisa and Osama were sent to the Winneba District Court, the court remanded them into Police custody for an initial four days, and when they were brought back to the court after serving the four days term, the court granted her bail with one strange condition; Louisa and the Osama each required Police Officers stationed in Winneba Divisional Command, not below the rank of Chief Inspector, to stand surety.
Is it not the same Police Officers prosecuting the woman? How much more unkind could an order be? It is basically as though you are protecting the deer from being hunted by the lion, but later you handed the deer back to the lion for protection.
With the kind of political fear regime that was being practiced in Winneba, it was obviously impossible to get any police officer to agree to sign a bail bond, much less a Chief Inspector.
Unfortunately, Louisa ended up staying nine days in cells until the lawyers secured very flexible bail terms at the Cape Coast Oguaa High court, at the blind side of the Winneba Police/courts.
Even after the bail order was brought from Cape Coast, some Winneba police officers were so afraid to receive them – that is the extent of slavery we have experienced in Winneba in our recent years.
Anyway, Louisa and Osama came out of the police cells on the evening of Thursday December 5, 2024, just a day before the elections.
Before this ordeal, Louisa had filed a suit in the High Court to injunct the Electoral Commission from conducting the Effutu Parliamentary elections on December 7th, since the Electoral Commission had discriminately applied sections of the electoral law (C.I.127) against her.
That one too the High Court refused, even though the EC had clearly, and factually, broken the law. The C.I.127 required the EC to provide each candidate with names and locations of polling stations, including the list of new polling stations. This should have been given to the candidates 60 days in advance of the voting day. All contestants were provided. However, Louisa was ignored.
The C.I.127 also required the EC to provide candidates with voters and special voters register. These should have been given to candidates at specific days in advance. This too, Louisa was denied.
There were series of meetings held with candidates at the request of the EC. Louisa was invited to none.
Even after the court had refused her injunction application, the Electoral Commission, led by Mrs. Jean Mensah and her Effutu Municipal Officer, Madam Stephany, refused to recognize Louisa in any of the processes related to the election, and provided her with none of the documents mentioned above.
All these sequences started happening after the incumbent MP, Hon.Alexander kwamena Afenyo-Markin, went on radio to level demeaning allegations against Louisa and Osama, alleging that the NDC was deliberately sponsoring Louisa for a political advantage, and went on to threaten to jail them. Hon.Alexander kwamena Afenyo-Markin later went on disparaging spree, publicly describing the woman in some demeaning and unprintable terms.
Immediately after the elections were over, the Ghana Police Service discontinued the criminal charges against Louisa, and the court consequently discharged her. Mission accomplished?
Essentially, the system acted variously in tandem, to deny Ms. Louisa Buabeng, the only female Parliamentary candidate Effutu constituency has ever had, from meaningfully participating in an election she had filed, paid filing fees for, to contest.
Of course, I had interest in the unfolding scenes. I naively thought since we are all helping to promote women empowerment, and women’s participation in politics, the four women (EC Chairperson, the Effutu EC Officer, the High Court Judge, and the woman presiding at the District Court), would have looked at the issues with gender lenses, and at the very least, would not jeopardize Louisa’s participation in the elections.
On the contrary, almost everyone in the relevant public orbit actively acted to destroy the only woman participant in the election.
I have brought these aspects of the electoral processes for three reasons:
- The length at which the court could go to serve as conduit for the perpetuation of injustice.
- The tokenistic approach to gender advocacy in Ghana which needs to change. I look forward to the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection or any of the women’s advocacy groups, taking up this case, of the near atrocities meted out to Madam Louisa Buabeng, who had to endure shame, handcuffed and paraded on the streets of Winneba, for the mere fact that she is filed to contest a parliamentary election.
- How some public officers and institutions who are supposed to be the vanguards of justice, make mockery of all that they should stand for, including their own intellectual acquisitions, and their humanity, sometimes for a morsel of porridge, or for promised favors, or for any other demeaning reasons.
In the case of Mr. Samuel Asiedu Okanta, who went to the extent of causing my arrest and prosecution for uttering the words “…and so what?”, he was reportedly promoted to the rank of ACP shortly after the 2020 elections, and reportedly became the Commandant at the Tesano Police Training School.
Mr. Okanta’s main cheer leader (popularly known as Killer) was also reported to have been promoted shortly after the 2020 elections. One of the High Court judges in Effutu who delivered some of the bizarre judgments in Winneba, is also reported to have been transferred to Accra soon after, and subsequently promoted to the Appeals Court.
I am not sure if any of these rewards and promotions were linked to their perceived indulgence; coincidences may have happened though.
However, in all of these, I am determined to use my experiences to achieve one thing; to help reform our institutions and their public officers who are supposed to hold the doors opened for justice.
I have already filed a petition at the High Court to annul the 2024 Parliamentary elections. I am doing this not necessarily because I am seeking to replace the incumbent MP at all course. No. I am simply on a mission of getting a pronouncement of the propriety of the actions and the inactions of those in the system.
Afterall, I am aware that what I am seeking may well happen long after the four year term has been served, judging from the snail-pace of Ghana’s court system.
But, even if the judgment comes in ten years (long after the term has been served), I would have still helped in getting the Electoral Commission and the Courts aware that their actions and inactions, and decisions could well be subject of future scrutiny.
And just for the records, I would seek to take several other issues (some social, others economic, etc) to court, for the same reasons, to test the law on how we have applied our institutions to the detriment of the weak in our society.
For instance, in the year 2020, while the schemed criminal case was pending against me, I granted an interview in which I stated that I SUSPECTED Hon.Alexander kwamena Afenyo-Markin to be behind the scheme. He sued me, in Winneba’s District Court, for defamation, and succeeded in getting judgment in his favor. I subsequently appealed, and I will continue (regardless of the outcome) until determinations are made at the Supreme Court, for all consequential reasons.
One of the cardinal insurance in the practice of Journalism is that of the use of the word ‘alleged’ or ‘allegedly’. These are used when Journalists and or ordinary persons are unsure of their facts or evidence. The security agencies, especially the Police, deploys its equivalent as ‘SUSPECT’.
When a security person arrests and charges a person, that person is described as a suspect, until the court convicts the person of the crime for sure. Therefore, if I used the word ‘SUSPECTS’ or ‘ALLEGEDLY’ and the court could hold that against me, then Journalism or Police prosecution would be in jeopardy.
It is for this reason that I intend pursuing this case to the Supreme Court if need be, to appropriately and legally codify these words in journalism and criminal prosecutions, so that there is no ambiguity in the practice, and in the future.
In all the cases that I am involved in, I am determined to take them up to the supreme court for final determination. Even if I win at the lower levels, I will look for reason to take it further up to the supreme court, for finality.
In so doing, we would have removed any ambiguity from what ought to be done, and the decisions would have been reported in the Ghana Law Report for references.
Already, the Winneba High Court has declined jurisdiction in the Election Petition I filed, for technical reasons, and this has jeopardized the entire petition. However, I have been presented with the first opportunity to test that decision at the Supreme Court.
I believe we must all join hands with those before us who have been testing the law. For instance, is it not possible for the Supreme Court to be invited to test its own approach, when a person was able to file a case in the Supreme Court, got the court to empanel Justices, sat on the case the same day, and got judgment the same day, and got the orders typed out and printed the same day, while some other cases in the same court could take several months without empaneling? Can’t we make this a reason for the removal of the Chief Justice, so that that becomes one of his key performance indicators?
I foresee Anas/Kennedy US defamation case inspiring more people to court, and I foresee more judges and Magistrates being inspired to keep fidelity to their oaths.