Laws On Contempt Of Court...Ghanaians Told To File A Writ At The Supreme Court

Mr Ayikoi Otoo, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, on Thursday urged interested Ghanaians to file a writ at the Supreme Court for interpretation of the constitutionality of the laws on contempt of court. He said the law as it stands now is not clearly defined, and the penalties for committing contempt are also not well codified. Mr Otoo threw the challenge in an exclusive interview with the Ghana News Agency at the inaugural lecture of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra. He said Ghana�s laws on contempt date back to the colonial days when the British transported their laws into the then Gold Coast, however, the British have since codified their laws on contempt with well-defined penalties for committing them. He said taking a cue from the British, the legislature in Ghana can also enact new laws on contempt which will resolve any further ambiguity on it. Mr Otoo advised Ghanaians to abide by all court orders in order to avoid any problem of being held in contempt of court, adding that even when they don�t agree with a court�s ruling or order, they should use the same legal means to rectify it. He said not until the law is changed, the judges and magistrates are obligated to apply and it will be applied as it is, not the law as it ought to be. He suggested to his learned friends to study any case of contempt brought against their clients very carefully, and when they perceive their clients have no defence; then, they should plead for them in order to mitigate the court�s sentence. It would be recalled that during the Presidential petition hearing in 2013, the then General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie and a fellow party member, Hopeson Adorye, were both summoned before the court for contempt. Their Counsel, Mr Otoo using pleas, professional experience, diplomacy and personal experiences, managed to get the Court to mitigate their punishments. The Court fined Mr Owusu-Afriyie GH� 5,000 and bonded him to be of good behaviour for six months or go to jail for six months in default, whereas Mr Adorye was convicted and fined GH� 2,000.