Ward-Brew files motion to stay execution
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 September 2000
Mr. Thomas Nuako Ward-Brew, leader of one faction of the Democratic People's Party (DPP), has filed a motion at an Accra High Court for stay of execution of an order of interim injunction slapped on him by another High Court on September 8.
On the eve of his faction's congress last Friday, a High Court presided over by Mr. Justice Victor Ofoe, granted an ex-parte motion restraining him from holding himself out as the founder, leader or chairman of the DPP.
On Wednesday, the Electoral Commission turned down nomination papers of Mr. Ward-Brew who wanted to contest the December 7 presidential election on the ticket of the DPP.
Earlier in the day, he filed the motion for stay of execution, explaining that he has another motion pending at the Supreme Court for orders of certiorari, prohibition and mandamus.
He, therefore, prayed the court to quash the order of interim injunction granted to the DPP on September 8, until the Supreme Court finally hears and determines the suit.
Mr. Ward-Brew maintained that there are other suits pending at the High Court and that he is still the founder, leader and chairman of DPP.
Mr. Ward-Brew therefore argued that it would be against the spirit and letter of the party's constitution if, as leader, founder and chairman of DPP, he were restrained from holding out himself as such. The High Court will begin to hear the motion on Tuesday.
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Tema (Greater Accra) 15 September 2000
Pleas by a lawyer that his ex-convict client was suffering from Kleptomania, an irresistible impulse to steal, could not dissuade a Tema Community Tribunal from sentencing 34-year-old Mary Nyarkoa to six months' imprisonment.
Mr. William Kobb-Lumor had pleaded with the tribunal, chaired by Mr. Philip Agbeyome, that Nyarkoa had told him that she does not know what makes her steal and therefore needed deliverance or to be sent for psychiatric treatment.
Nyarkoa, nicknamed "The Tuesday Thief" by Tema Community One market women, pleaded guilty to three counts of stealing a full piece of Dutch wax print valued at 600,000 cedis, a cash of 719,000 cedis and a GTP wax print. All the crimes were committed on Tuesdays.
Her lawyer had argued that sending Nyarkoa to jail would not serve any purpose to society since she would return to steal again.
But Mr. Agbeyome objected to the plea, saying that, in the Prisons too, inmates who are subjected to bible reading come out as born-again people and the accused was therefore no exception.
Nyarkoa stole a piece of GTP wax print last Tuesday and was being disciplined by traders at the Tema market when she was identified by Madam Yaa Agyeiwaa, a trader, and Mr. Sylvester Kuffour, a store-keeper, as the thief who took away a piece of Dutch wax print and a cash of 719,000 cedis respectively from their shops.
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