The Accra Circuit Court ‘9’, presided over by His Honour Samuel Bright Acquah has rescinded a bench warrant issued for the arrest of the General Manager (GM) of Trassaco Limited, Morris Ian.
The decision follows an application filed by his Counsel, Martin Kpebu, that the embattled General Manager/Managing Director of Trassaco Estate could not attend court on Friday, August 26, 2022 because he was down with Covid-19.
The application filed on Monday, August 29, 2022 said: “I am before you (Court) for A7 (Morris Ian) today. A7 couldn’t make it to court last Friday, not aware and he is also down with Covid-19.
I pray that the bench warrant be rescinded and as soon as he gets well, he will be available.”
Earlier on Friday the Prosecuting officer had informed the court that Mr Ian, together with two others –Hamid Musah (A6) and Dr Botwe (A8) – had allegedly escaped trial by the court.
The three were part of five other accused persons facing conspiracy to commit a crime, preparation for committing certain criminal offences, causing unlawful damage and prohibition of land guards’ charges.
These persons are;AkuribillaAnnanfo, 40, Razak Seidu, 28, Abdallah Abdul Fatau, 40, Baah Samuel, 38 and Francis Avegbedo, 38 – all security men arraigned before the court last Friday, where they pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The court, after a careful analysis of the arguments on bail, raised by the Counsel for the accused persons, Anthony Lartey, led by Martin Kpebu and the prosecution, remanded the five into police custody, to reappear before it yesterday, August 30, 2022.
The brief facts read to the court by the police prosecuting officer indicated that the case was reported to the police by the General Manager of TOP Kings, Benjamin Kwame Danso (Complainant).
The court was informed that somewhere in 1999, the Empire Builders Limited took the Complainant and others to court, but the case was settled on December 16, 2020 in favour of Mr Danso and others.
It was alleged that despite the Complainant and others winning the case, they continued to suffer at the hands of the accused persons and their manager, Dr. Botwe, who recruited them as land guards for the Trassaco Estate.
And that, since the judgement could not put the matter to rest, a series of complaints were lodged with the police, in relation to the case.
Thus on August 17, 2021 the police received information that Dr. Botwe and Morris Ian allegedly agreed for a meeting to be held between the latter and three of the accused persons – Abdullah, Baah and one Hamid Musah @ Alhaji, at large.
It was concluded at the alleged meeting between the four that Morris Ian wanted to take over land which belonged to the Complainant and his company.
Morris Ian was said to have concluded the meeting by paying cash of GH¢41,000.00 and further issued GH¢50,000.00 Access Bank cheque to Abdullah on behalf of the land guards.In furtherance of this, Morris Ian was alleged to have put Abdullah, Baah and Hamid Musah in his Range Rover vehicle, and drove them to the Complainant’s site to demolish the buildings on the land.
As a result, on August 1, this year, police patrol teams, assisted by a witness in the case, who also is a night security man arrested AkrubillaAnnanfo and SeiduRazak.
At the time of the arrest, one pump action gun and ten rounds of BB cartridges were found on Akrubilla.Similarly, a spot interrogation conducted by the police patrol team discloses that Akrubilla and Seidu were all working for Morris Ian, who is the General Manager of Trassaco Limited.
Fast forward, on August 17, 2022 the Regional Command received information that the Managing Director of Trassaco and Dr Botwe were recruiting land guards to go and demolish the buildings of TOP King and their customers.
The court was informed that based upon this information, police patrol teams were dispatched to the area, where the accused were alleged mobilising to attack the Complainant, but before the police could reach there, they had information and left.
On August 24, 2022 the police again received information that the accused persons, led by Abdullah, were mobilising the land guards to go and demolish buildings of the Complainant and his customers.
A police patrol team was once again dispatched to the area and arrested Akrubilla and Hamid, but the others escaped.
The court was informed that during interrogation, Abdullah and Baah admitted the offences in the presence of an independent witness, and the accused persons were charged with the offences and arraigned before court. Efforts are underway to apprehend the other suspects at large.
