The Supreme Court has ruled that the Attorney General did nothing wrong in discontinuing the prosecution of Gregory Afoko at the High Court.
According to the court, the plaintiff failed to prove that the Attorney General was unfair and unreasonable while exercising its constitutional powers.
But one of the judges, Justice Gabriel Pwamang in his concurring judgment said, going forward, the Attorney General must be more transparent in exercising such powers as it may have some consequence on public confidence in the criminal justice system.
Gregory Afoko, who is facing trial for the murder of then Upper East New Patriotic Party (NPP) chairman, Adam Mahama, went to the Supreme Court challenging the fairness of the decision to discontinue the trial which he said was almost at the tail end.
In his writ invoking the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, Afoko sought a declaration that the nolle prosequi filed by the A-G on January 28, 2019 was a violation of articles 23 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution and must, therefore, be declared as “unconstitutional, null and void”.
Afoko was also seeking an order nullifying the nolle prosequi and for “the High Court to continue to hear the case to its legal conclusion”.
The AG on January 28, 2019, filed a nolle prosequi to discontinue the trial following the arrest of another suspect, Asabke Alangdi, who had been on the run since the incident occurred in 2015.
Afoko and Alangdi have since been put before the Accra Central District Court on provisional charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder for committal proceedings, which are a prelude to the trial at the High Court.
Meanwhile, the High Court has also ordered the Inspector General of Police, David Asante Apeatu and the Criminal Investigations Department Director-General, COP Maame Tiwaa Addo Danquah, who flouted an order to produce Gregory Afoko to the court, to appear before it on July 3 for contempt proceedings against them.
The order followed the failure of the police to release Gregory Afoko three months after he was granted bail by the court.
