GRi in Court Ghana 22 -12 - 2000
Electoral Commission sued by Tema West CPP
Nigerian jailed six months for attempted
kidnapping
Electoral Commission sued by Tema West CPP
Tema (Greater Accra) 22 Dec. 2000
The Tema West Constituency branch of the CPP has filed a writ against the Electoral Commission (EC) for failing to publish the full name of its parliamentary candidate, Mr Justice Emmanuel Kofi Jones-Mensah for the December 7 elections.
Mr Mohammed Ali Tijani, Campaign Director of Mr Jones-Mensah, filed the writ at a high court in Tema, asking it to declare the results of parliamentary election in the constituency void "for gross unfairness."
The suit said the omission by the EC has discredited the election process and urged the court to order a fresh poll.
In his statement of claim, Mr Tijani said the EC's ballot papers and public notice posters deliberately deleted the surname "Jones-Mensah" by which the candidate was popularly known among his sympathisers and rather printed the name as "Mr Justice Emmanuel Kofi".
The writ said despite written and personal protests to the EC on November 2, the Commission failed to effect a change until December 4, before it wrote to say that the full name of the candidate would appear on the ballot paper.
The plaintiff contended that the defective notice remained posted for eight weeks before the voting day while the names of the other candidates were not truncated, creating opportunities for an unfair contest. However, on voting day, the ballot papers did not bear the full name of Mr Jones-Mensah.
The EC therefore misled voters by exhibiting Mr Jones-Mensah's candidature as that of a Mr Justice Emmanuel Kofi.
It said Mr Jones-Mensah was denied the opportunity of a fair contest and was defeated because voters did not have a fair opportunity of identifying the candidate by his full name in order to assess his potentials before the voting day.
In the parliamentary election, Mr Jones-Mensah polled 2,887 votes as against 25,647 by Mr Abraham Osei Aidoo of NPP, 10,860 by Flt Lt. M. G. Nii Tackie of NDC, 1,520 for Mr Godfred Biney of NRP, and 976 for Miss Joyce Annan of PNC.
GRi../
Nigerian jailed six months for attempted
kidnapping
Accra (Greater Accra) 22 December 2000
The Osu Community Tribunal on Thursday sentenced Osarentin Osagie, a Nigerian businessman, to six months imprisonment for attempting to kidnap a baby boy from his mother. Osagie, 29, pleaded guilty.
The tribunal, chaired by Mrs Ivy Heward-Mills, ordered that Osagie should be repatriated after serving the sentence.
Police Inspector Johnson Anim, prosecuting, said at about 0600 hours on December 14, this year, Madam Adjoa Dee, a trader, visited her friend opposite the Ams Hotel at Kokomlemle in Accra with her three-year-old baby boy.
He said while conversing with her friend, a taxi pulled up beside them. Osagie emerged from the taxi and attempted to snatch the boy from the arms of his mother.
The accused tried to convince the people around that Adjoa was his wife but Adjoa staunchly denied and managed to save the baby from being kidnapped, dislocating his arm in the process. The prosecutor said the people at the scene arrested Osagie and sent him to the police station.
GRi…/