Awudu Ali, an unemployed man, resident at Fiapre, in the Sunyani West District has sued the Inspector General of Police, the Attorney General and two others for wrongful detention.
He is seeking an order from a Sunyani High Court to compel the defendants to compensate him in the sum of GH¢1 million for violation of his fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the 1992 constitution.
The other defendants include the Brong-Ahafo Regional Commander of the Ghana Prison Service and Corporal Adams Mamudu, a prosecutor at the Regional Police CID office in Sunyani.
An affidavit filed by Foster Akwasi Asante, counsel for the plaintiff and made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) noted that the plaintiff:”‘s personal liberty was unjustifiably and unlawfully curtailed by the defendants from March to July 2016.
It explained that on January 15, 2015, Ali was arraigned together with two others before the Fiapre Circuit Court on charges of abetment of crime.
The court presided over by Mr Yaw Owoahene Acheampong, remanded the plaintiff into lawful custody and adjourned the case to 29 January, after he (Ali) had pleaded not guilty to the charge of stealing.
It said when the case was heard on March 3, last year the plaintiff was admitted to bail in the sum of GH¢3,000 with a surety, adding that after several adjournments Mrs Ananda Aikins, (sitting as additional circuit court judge at the court ) struck out the case for want of prosecution and discharged the plaintiff on March 1, 2016.
“Notwithstanding the fact that I had on the day of March 1, 2016 been lawfully discharged, the defendants continuously and unlawfully kept me at the central prisons on an expired warrant”, the affidavit added.
It said the plaintiff somewhere March 14, 2016 fell ill and as his health condition kept on deteriorating at the central prisons the prosecutor sent him to the hospital.
The prosecutor later took the plaintiff to the Regional Police command where his discharged was confirmed.
He said when he accosted the prosecutor on his unlawful detention he apologized and gave me him his telephone number and GH¢10 to use as a lorry fare to his home.