<<Print>>

District Chief Executive (DCE) for Amenfi Central in the Western Region, Peter Kwakye Ackah, may be facing a court sentence today if the Sekondi High Court uphold a motion of contempt brought before it against him.

The motion of contempt was brought against the DCE by one Kwame Armah, owner of a petroleum filling station in Manso Amenfi in the Amenfi Central District, following the DCE's failure to execute a court order issued since October 31, 2014

The DCE has refused to execute an order by the Sekondi High Court to facilitate the regularization of Mr. Armah's documents relating to his petroleum filling station.

The DCE in July 2013 had sued Armah over the siting of his filling station, arguing that the facility fell within the residential enclave as earmarked by the assembly.

His action was prompted by the decision of Armah to submit a new design of his already existing filling station to the assembly for approval.

In the course of the hearing of the case, the DCE applied for an injunction to be placed on the facility until the final determination of the case, a request which the court granted after instructing him to on behalf of the assembly, sign an undertaken to compensate the defendant should the case go against the assembly.
It was the defendant's argument that he had been operating the station since 1992 and had all his documents intact including certification from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the then Wassa Amenfi District Assembly.

According to him, the Amenfi Central District which was recently carved out of the Wassa Amenfi District, could not halt his operations just because he had presented a new design for his facility.

About one-and-half years of hearing, the court on October 31, 2014 ruled in favour of Armah, the defendant, and ordered the DCE to facilitate the regularization of Armah's documents concerning the new design of his filling station.

The DCE, apparently not satisfied with the ruling, filed a motion for Stay of Execution of the ruling but it was subsequently thrown out.

He subsequently filed another Stay of Execution and an appeal of the case at the Cape Coast Court of Appeal but his second attempt for Stay of Execution was again thrown out.
While the appeal is pending, the DCE after seven days of the Court of Appeal's determination on the Stay of Execution motion, is obliged to execute the high court's order of facilitating the regularization of Mr. Armah's new documents but the former has declined.

The court would however decide on his fate today.
Meanwhile, The New Crusading Guide has gathered that the DCE might be wanting to settle a personal score with Mr. Armah.

This paper learnt that the DCE was once a New Patriotic Party (NPP) member who contested in the party's parliamentary primaries in the Amenfi Central Constituency in 2004 and lost.

At the time, Mr. Armah was the Constituency Chairman and was believed to have played a role in Mr. Ackah's defeat at the primaries.

Since then, the two have not been in good terms, compelling Mr. Ackah to contest as an independent parliamentary candidate in 2008.

In 2010, Mr. Ackah defected to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and contested in the party's parliamentary primaries in 2011 and lost.

He was however compensated with the position of a DCE after the NDC had won the 2012 elections.