The Court drama that led to Agyapong’s bail

By Ivy Benson

The firebrand New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin-North, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, who appeared before an Accra Fast Track Court (FTC) on fresh charges of acts of terrorism, following intemperate language he used on an Accra-based private radio station, has been granted bail at last.
The MP has been charged with terrorism, treason felony, and attempted genocide, after the state dropped a previous charge of treason against him.
The accused was yesterday, granted bail in the sum of GH¢200,000 with one surety to be justified, and this suspends the earlier bail granted him by the Human Rights Court, where his lawyers filed an exparte application of Habeas Corpus, seeking bail for Mr. Agyapong, who had been held in the cells of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for more than 48 hours without trial.
The court, presided over by Justice Charles Quist, also bonded him to be of good behaviour, but advised the prosecution to take another look at the charges brought against the accused person.
Hundreds of NPP sympathisers, who pitched camp outside the court premises after being denied entry, went into wild jubilation on hearing that MP had been admitted to bail for the second time.
The latest admission of the MP to bail follows a member of the defense legal team, Mr. Ayikoi Otoo, a former Attorney-General, who sought bail for the accused person.
According to the counsel, the charges brought against his client do not support the facts presented by the state prosecutors.
Mr. Ayikoi Otoo also made an appeal to the court for his client to remain with the Registrar of the court until all the bail conditions had been satisfied, in order to prevent the situation where the prosecutors would bring another charge against the accused person, and in the event, take him back into custody again.
It is the case of the state that Mr. Agyapong had made certain pronouncements on a radio discussion programme on his radio station, Oman FM, that all Ewes, a Ghanaian ethnic tribe, should be killed.
This, according to the state, was an act of terrorism, and that the MP was attempting to cause genocide in the country, and therefore, should be remanded into custody.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Court, presided over by Justice Kofi Essel Mensah, who initially granted the MP bail on the basis of a breach of the 1992 Constitution, and on the health status of Mr. Agyapong, further ordered the Inspector General of Police to appear in court on April 24, this year, to justify why the Mr. Agyapong was kept in custody beyond the 48 hours mandated by the Constitution, with trial.
This development came on the heels of the refusal of the Magistrate Court last Wednesday, April 18, to handle the case of treason, where the MP was initially taken to be lawfully remanded after he was arrested and charged by the police on April 16, this year.
The Magistrate Court had cited procedural inaccuracies adopted by the state, contrary to the informed procedure directed by the Chief Justice in 1st degree felony cases, of which the charge of treason brought against the beleaguered MP was included.

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