A private legal practitioner and member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo has said that members of pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) vigilante group, Delta Force, who carried out an attack at the Kumasi Circuit Court earlier this week must be dealt with harshly. According to him, that will help restore the sanctity of the court and serve as a deterrent to others in the future.
He said the actions of the individuals undermined the authority of the court and that did not auger well for the country’s democracy. “It is important that we respect the rule of law.
You cannot be taken to a Court of Law and when a Judge has given a ruling… [you] take the law into your hands and to actually threaten a Judge.
It is a very serious thing. If you don’t like the ruling, the next thing you do is to appeal, because you are supposed to have lawyers there and I believe the accused persons had legal representations. It is not a matter that we must take lightly at all.
Because if the full weight of the law is not brought down to bear on these individuals, it will send a very wrong message,” Nii Kpakpo said.
Many Ghanaians have criticized members of NPP vigilante group, Delta Force, who stormed the Kumasi Circuit Court on Thursday, and freed 13 of their members who were facing charges for causing disturbances at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council last month.
The group vandalized some court property, and almost assaulted the Judge, Mary Senkyere after she had ruled that, the accused be remanded to reappear before the court on the 20th of April, 2017.
But speaking on the Big Issue on Saturday, Nii Kpakpo said, “I believe that, when I say the full weight of the law, I really think that nothing less than some custodian sentence will set a certain message….Once the sanctity and dignity of the Court has been violated, it must be restored.
And the only by which you can restore that is to deal harshly with the persons who did that… A sentence that will send a clear message that no one who is ever taken to court will dream; his relatives will ever dream of that.” He said the action of the group must be condemned by all stakeholders. He, however, commended the Interior Minister Ambrose Derry for the swift public condemnation of the incident.
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