Former
NPP minister goes to court today
Audrey Micah,
Ghanadot
Accra, July 16, Ghanadot -
Former minister of the previous New Patriotic Party
(NPP) Akwasi Osei -Adjei, whose traveler’s passport
was confiscated by the Bureau of National
Investigations (BNI) when he was ‘invited’ for
interrogation, would this morning appear before an
Accra High Court, seeking that his seized passport
be returned to him.
Describing the situation Mr. Osei-Adjei said the
seizure of his passport is illegal and an abuse of
his human rights, thus the reason for dragging the
Attorney General and Minister of Justice as well as
the Director of BNI to court.
The ex-Minister had his passport taken from him last
May when he was ordered through a phone call to
report at the office of the BNI to help in
investigating a case in which the Government of
Ghana pleaded with the Government of India to wave a
ban on the exportation of food products so as to
allow rice to be exported from the Asian country to
Ghana.
On arrival at the BNI, Osei-Adjei was not charged
with any offence but a number of security agents
were dispatched to follow him to his private
residence and ensure that he handed over his
traveler’s passport to them.
He has sued the Justice Minister, government’s
principal legal advisor, for illegality, abuse of
power and unconstitutionality and cited the BNI boss
for what he described as unreasonableness,
capriciousness and arbitrariness.
An affidavit of response from the accused persons
argues that there was nothing unconstitutional about
the seizure of the said passports.I
t stated that “what the Internal Security Agency did
was in accordance with the provisions of Article 14
of the Constitution, in that the Security Agencies
are permitted to restrict one’s movement to ensure
that subjects of criminal investigations such as the
Applicant appeared before the Agencies to continue
with proceedings preliminary to trial”.
According to the intelligence information gathered
by the Internal Security Agency Osei-Adjei was
trying to abscond and that this is evident by his
“craving and pleading to be given his passport at a
time he is aware that he is being investigated”.
Ghanadot
