Chairman Wontumi (Middle) in the company of some members of the NPP after his release
The Ashanti Region Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi) has been released after meeting all the bail conditions.
He was released on Friday, October 10, a Communicator of the New Patriotic Party, Awal Mohammed said on his Facebook page.
On Thursday, October 9, Chairman Wontumi’s lead Counsel, Andy Appiah-Kubi, disclosed that barring any last-minute hitches, his client would be released today, Friday.
According to him, all the bail conditions had all been met.
“We have met all the bail conditions, except a transfer of his passport from EOCO to the registrar of the court. The officials at EOCO promised to deliver them tomorrow [Friday. So tomorrow [Friday] morning, God willing, we’ll be able to secure the release of Chairman Wontumi for him to come home. We are looking at tomorrow morning.So, barring any last-minute hitches, all things being equal, by tomorrow, he will be released. We don’t anticipate any further delays,” he told Alfred Ocansey on Ghana Tonight on October 9.
Touching on his earlier position of bail conditions being used as punishment, Mr Appiah-Kubi said, “Well, I think that when somebody or an accused person has not been found guilty of any offence, he’s entitled to his freedom. And that’s exactly what the court determined. Nevertheless, the court, in its own wisdom, decided to give these conditions of bail.
But the complaint has been that when people are admitted to bail with justification, there is always the possibility of delay in executing the order. And that’s what I explained, that you need verification from the Lands Commission, which takes time. And after the verification, you need also the evaluation of the property, which also has the potential to delay.”
Mr Appiah-Kubi noted that there is the need to review these procedures.
“So when you have gone through all that, there are chances that you may have spent some days in custody. And I was suggesting that we need to take a second look at it. Because when the law requires of you to be free, and the courts pronounce the ruling, giving indication that you must go scot-free, there is a process that you go through.
And that process, the system has challenges. And I’m saying that it does not give you, the accused person, your right to freedom as expected by the ruling. And in any case, in the process of executing the bail conditions, you are likely to also lose a lot of money,” the lawyer explained.
He further noted that, “And where the justification, the amount, or the value of the property is high, you will be losing something like 1% of it. So, in the case of the GHC20 million, the accused person is supposed to bring forth not less than 200,000 Ghanaian cedis. So I’m not sure that it is fair for accused persons, because they want, or they made application for bail, to pay 200,000 Ghanaian cedis before they can secure their release.
It is not fair. It is unlawful, because bail should not impose any penalties whatsoever on the accused person. The very important concern, in fact, so is the verification and evaluation of the property, then make the whole process delay and in fact laborious.
I’m concerned about the delay, I’m concerned about the cost of securing the bail order. Indeed, if the bail condition includes justification of the property and the evaluation of the property, it makes it expensive.”
