An Accra High Court has ordered the arrest of the Director General, Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.
It also ordered the arrest of the Director General in-charge of the Legal and Prosecution Unit of CID.
The order came after a contempt application had been heard by the court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo in a case titled, Republic verses Director General, Criminal Investigation Department, the Director, Legal and Prosecution, CID, ex-parte Sureword Global Outreach.
The court had previously ordered the Inspector General of the Ghana Police Service George Akuffo Dampare to direct the Director General of CID and Director General of Legal and Prosecution Unit of the Department to appear this morning (Monday).
When the case was called, the Court noted that its orders had been carried out, but the respondents were not in court.
According to the court, there is evidence on its records that the orders of the court had been carried out adding, “there is affidavit of the service which indicates that the order to service the IGP had been done.”
The court noted that its order was served on the IGP through Inspector Boatemaa Julia.
“Equally, the previous order was served on the IGP through Inspector Alexander Nsiah, a secretary at Cantonments on March 28, 2024,” the court noted.
“This court has extended enough courtesy to these public officers due to the fact that there is nobody above the law. I hereby issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the respondents,” it added.
The matter has been adjourned to May 8, 2024.
A Director of Sureword Global Outreach, a subsidiary company, in an affidavit in support of the application said on November 14, 2023, one Noagbe Julius (a Customer) approached Sure Rental to rent one of its vehicles for a day.
The applicant said Sure Rental agreed to rent to the customer Applicant’s Toyota Fortuner with registration number GN 2925-20 and proceeded to fill the rental form for the customer.
“That the customer Noagbe Julius paid the sum of the GHC1,300 to Sure Rental as payment for the rent of the applicant’s vehicle.
The vehicle rented to Noagbe Julius by Sure Rental belongs to Sureword Global Outreach, a sister company of Sure Rentals.”
According to the applicant, on November 14, 2023, few hours after handing over the keys of the vehicle to Noagbe Julius, a Police Officer reported to Sure Rental that Noagbe Julius has allegedly used applicant’s vehicle he rented to convey substances suspected to be illicit drugs and he has been apprehended and detained at CID headquarters.
The applicant held that the CID in addition to the arrest of Noagbe had also impounded applicant’s vehicle since November 14, 2023, till date without any justification.
The Applicant contended that Sure Rental, being a car rental company, did not control the activities of customers who had its rented vehicles their possession and therefore could not be criminally liable for acts committed by such clients.
“That Sure Rental business for two weeks now has been denied the use of its investments which loss continues to jeopardize the operation of the business.
That the continuous detention of the vehicle is without basis since the culprit has been apprehended and the vehicle is not subject matter of investigations.”
The applicant said, “the vehicle has not committed any crime and it is not needed as evidence in court and therefore its continuous detention is unlawful.”
The applicant therefore prayed the court to order the release of the vehicle for effective running of business.
GNA
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