Chris Ackumey, Private Legal Practitioner
Private Legal Practitioner, Chris Ackumey, has illustrated that the Kaneshie court had every right to issue a bench arrest for Francis-Xavier Sosu, Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina Constituency.
He implied, “a prosecutor can establish a basis upon which such a warrant can be granted, practically in this instance. On the other hand, the court on its own cannot issue the arrest if the prosecutor had not submitted the request.”
He believes the court should be given the “free and unfettered” right to fulfill its obligations enshrined in the country’s constitution.
During an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he said, “We can’t fault the Kaneshie court for issuing the arrest warrant for the MP. I’m a strong advocate of the sovereignty of the court and I believe the court should be allowed a free and unfettered right to execute its mandate established in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, that is adjudicating cases brought before the law without any form of intimidation. So, whether it’s right for the Police Service to seek the warrant of arrest or not is also a different scenario. However, I won’t fault the court for granting the bench arrest.”
Nonetheless, Mr. Ackumey stated due to the Parliamentary immunities enjoyed by the MP, the Police might ineffectively carry out the warrant, unless they use other dubious methods which would obviously be against the law.
“There’s a procedure for which things have been done in the past when it comes to the invitation of parliamentary members by the police. It is routed through the Speaker of Parliament for him to arrange with the Parliamentarian in question, who has this kind of Parliamentary immunity from parliament. That has been the precedent all along and I don’t see why we are deviating from that by showing this unnecessary bravado. I think this must result in insanity and the right thing needs to be done at this point,” Lawyer Ackumey added.
His insight comes at the back of the recent event that occurred on Monday, November 29, as the Kaneshie District Court issued a warrant of arrest for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Madina Constituency, Francis Xavier Sosu.
This was after the MP, who has been charged for unlawfully blocking a public road and the destruction of public property, failed to appear in court for the third time.