Student charged with defilement.
Attorney General's Department faces Personnel problems - Amidu
Student charged with defilement.
Tema, (Greater Accra) 16 May 2000.
Ernest Ayitey Ashong, a student, on Wednesday appeared before the Tema Circuit Tribunal charged with defiling a seven-year-old girl at Tema Community Three. He pleaded not guilty and was granted 20 million cedis bail to reappear on May 15, 2000.
The tribunal, chaired by Mr. R.C. Azumah, heard that on January 11, 1999, the victim complained of acute abdominal pains and when her condition grew worse, she told the mother of an ordeal she went through in the hands of the accused two weeks earlier, when he invited her into his room, under the pretext of giving her an earphone.
The accused is said to have had sexual intercourse with her and inserted his finger into her private part, after which he warned her not to tell anyone. The mother reported the matter to the police. However, when Ashong was arrested, he denied the offence.
A medical report on the victim indicated that her hymen was broken. There was also vaginal discharge with severe lower abdominal tenderness due to sexual assault.
GRi…/
Accra (Greater Accra) 16 May 2000
Mr Martin Amidu, Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has noted that the acute lack of personnel and logistics is seriously undermining the ability of the Attorney General's Department to perform its constitutional duties.
He said though the Department in the short-term needs about 200 lawyers and about a 1,000 in the long-term to enable it to effectively discharge its duty of promoting the administration of justice, it currently has only 96 lawyers due to poor service conditions.
"There is therefore an urgent need to improve the conditions of service of the Department to enable it to attract and retain lawyers and other personnel so that the administration of justice does not suffer unduly."
Mr Amidu was delivering a paper on "the role of the Attorney General's Department in the dispensation of justice" at a seminar on 'Court Reporting' which ended in Accra on Friday.
It was organised by the Ghana Journalists Association and funded by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and aimed at equipping the participants drawn from all the media houses in the country with the requisite skills to report meaningfully from the courts.
Mr Amidu said the Department, apart from being the chief legal adviser to the government, also initiates and conducts civil and criminal cases on behalf of the state and settles claims against the government.
Mr Amidu said his Department was working closely with the World Bank to come out with a draft bill on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to help reduce litigation and decongest the courts.
"The Department is a firm believer in the ADR system as borne out by the fact that it successfully settles out of court over 65 per cent of all claims against the government every year."
Mr Justice George Acquah of the Supreme Court suggested the introduction of a post-graduate certificate course at the Ghana Institute of Journalism to assist journalists to specialise in court reporting.
Mr Justice Charles Hayfron-Benjamin who touched on "Delays in the Judiciary", announced plans to mechanise all the courts, adding that all judges in the high, appeal and supreme courts are being equipped with literacy skills in this direction.
In a resolution passed at the end of the two-day seminar, the participants called on the Ghana Journalists Association to include "The Best Court Reporter" category in its annual awards scheme.