The CHRAJ quotes Freddie Blay for contempt, wants him to be jailed when he is guilty

General News on Tuesday, June 4th, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-06-04

The president of the ruling NPP has been cited for contempt of court for refusing to honor the invitation of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to participate in investigations into the acquisition of 275 buses for his side.

The Commission is seeking a prison sentence for Freddie Blay should he be found guilty of contempt of court.

This follows the statement of the former first vice-president of Parliament who claimed not to have been invited and dared the Commission to stop her if she felt she had broken the law.

"The CHRAJ did not invite me to their offices, they have some time [ago] stated that they had sent letters to the place where I had offices … if you want to invite me personally, come with the letter. If you did not come to me with a letter but you keep telling the world that you invited Freddie Blay and so on … ", he told Kwesi Parker-Wilson of Joy News.

"Go to court and ask for an order, then come and arrest me for recalcitrance and disobedience of a court order," he added.

But on Tuesday, the CHRAJ called Mr. Blay's bluff and went to the High Court to call him for contempt of court seeking police custody when he was found guilty.

The CHRAJ has attached to their application the certificate of service of the document and letters as evidence. A letter dated August 20, 2018 was given to the clerk of the court on August 23, 2018 to serve Mr. Blay.

Again, a subpoena was given to the clerk to give Mr. Blay who stated to have handed it to the same receptionist.

After all the advice, the CHRAJ does not understand why the national president of the NPP would say that he did not receive any notification.

But Mr. Blay's spokesman, Richard Nyama, said that they had learned of the existence of the contempt quotation for Joy FM.

"Whatever the case may be, if the CHRAJ follows the appropriate process to properly serve Mr. Blay, he is not afraid to appear in a court of competent jurisdiction," he said.

Although Mr. Nyama stated that he did not know the person who had received the letter from the Daily Guide's office, he did say that it was incumbent on CHRAJ to provide this evidence to the court.

"I think CHRAJ is playing political ping-pong with this case because the law requires that there be an established prima facie," he said, adding that the commission was content with newspaper reports to invite Mr. Blay, which amounts to chasing ghosts.

Nyama said the CHRAJ had the ability to follow the contacts of the bank, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) – where Mr Blay is chairman of the board – and other places of interest to check whether there had been any offense, regardless of the form.