A High Court in Accra has jailed a serving Fire Service Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Ayitah Quansah, for assaulting a bailiff.
According to the facts of the case, Mr. Quansah teamed up with his household to beat up the bailiff who was performing his official duties.
The bailiff was to serve some processes on the fireman in an ongoing case before the court, but Mr. Quansah refused to accept the processes.
“The bailiff [then] threw it at him. The respondent [then] decided to beat him up,” the documents from the court sighted by citinewsroom.com read.
According to the fire officer, he took matters into his own hands and dealt with the bailiff because the latter “should have served him in his office [instead].”
But the judge, Her Ladyship Justice Sarah Aryee, in her ruling on Tuesday, July 4, 2023, said even if the bailiff erred in serving him the processes in his house instead of the office, the fire officer breached the law by unleashing mayhem on the court official.
She thus handed the fire officer a two-day custodial sentence.
“Counsel for the Judicial Service has informed the court about how bailiffs are constantly assaulted. This canker has to be nibbed in the bud. The respondent is found guilty of contempt of court since he failed to purge himself when the court gave him the opportunity to do so before the court. The respondent is sentenced to a custodial sentence of two days imprisonment.”
