COURT WAS TRICKED TO GRANT BAIL-JUDGE (Page 3 Lead)

25/02/08

Story: Mary Mensah
THE High Court judge who granted bail to the only Nigerian suspect in the Prampram cocaine trial has indicated that the suspect had not been charged with the possession of the 67 parcels of cocaine which was seized at Prampram in May 2006.
He said the suspect was presented to the court as a professional driver who was hired to pick a vehicle loaded with fish from the Prampram Beach to Achimota in Accra.
According to the judge, Mr Justice Anthony K. Abada, the prosecution neither presented the accused, Kenneth Ugah, as a Nigerian nor an accomplice in the matter.
He claimed that the facts, as made available to the court, indicated that Ugah was to be paid a fee for his services as driver and that although the prosecution raised objections to the bail application, he had to grant the bail to save a man he considered innocent.
Justice Abada stated in his ruling, which was made available to the Daily Graphic, that the suspect, in his application for bail, had stated that he was an innocent person who had been held in custody, since his arrest on May 21, 2006, without trial, contrary to Article 14 (4) of the 1992 Constitution.
The judge said the prosecution opposed the granting of bail not on the grounds that the applicant had actual knowledge of the nature and quality of the article possessed, or that the applicant had been aware that what he possessed was cocaine, a narcotic drug, but on the rather flimsy excuse that since the actual owner of the goods, Gordon, was still at large, the release of the applicant on bail could hamper investigations and that the application was premature and should, therefore, be refused.
“In my judgement, the whole purpose of bail before trial is to secure the attendance of the accused at his trial and to secure any sentence that may be pronounced on him subsequent to his conviction,” the Judge stated.
Justice Abada held that it was self evident that a person who had been denied bail before trial, only to be subsequently acquitted, would have suffered injustice, adding that it was to prevent that injustice that courts were granted powers to grant bail in appropriate cases.
The principle was that once it was established that a trial was probable within a reasonable time, then bail for persons accused of crime was mandatory, he explained.
“Failure or refusal to grant bail under such circumstances will constitute a direct infringement of the constitutional rights of the individual. See Okyere V. The Republic (1972) 1 GLR 99 at p. 104,” the judgement added.
“In the circumstance, the applicant is entitled to bail and shall be admitted to bail in the sum of GH¢30,000 with a surety to be justified and is to report himself to the police once every fortnight. Meanwhile the police must redouble their efforts in tracing and arresting Goddy, alias Gordon, the true owner of the whitish substance suspected to be cocaine,” he said.
Ugah, 42, was arrested as the driver of the Mercedes Benz bus, with registration number GW 1243 X, in which 28 cartons of fresh fish and 67 large cartons of cocaine were found.
The drugs were intercepted by the Buffalo Unit of the Police Service in Tema, in conjunction with the Prampram Police.
During investigations, Ugah was taken to his house at Madina, where samples of the material used to wrap the drug and other items, together with another Benz bus of the same colour as the one used to cart the drug, were found.
He was then arraigned, charged with conspiracy and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority and was remanded into custody to enable the police to conduct further investigations into the case.
But while he was at the James Fort Prison, he was reported to have fallen sick and taken to the Police Hospital for treatment.
According to police sources, Ugah’s condition was said to have deteriorated and, as a result, his counsel filed a motion for bail at the High Court, upon which the court, presided over by Justice Abada, granted him bail on June 25, 2007 in the sum of GH¢30,000 with one surety to be justified.
Ugah was to appear again in court on July 11, 2007 but he failed to do so.
Frank Wood, well known at the courts for having stood surety for many accused persons, who stood surety for Ugah, has been ordered by the court to produce him (Ugah) but he has failed to do so.