The Ashanti Regional Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and four Chinese illegal immigrants have been cited for contempt of a Kumasi High Court under Order 50 of the C.I. 47.
ACI Charles Yaw Bediako, Shi Li Wen Huang Shen Jun, Li De Hao and Lan Hai Song are the defendants in the substantive case before the court.
The Chinese nationals had also unlawfully entered the country and were undertaking illegal mining in a tract of land approved for educational purposes without the consent of the rightful owners.
By their conduct, the Chinese had destroyed the entire land rendering it unsuitable for the primary purpose underlying the acquisition of the 40 acres.
Yahaya Seidu Esquire of Nana Obiri Yeboah and Associates at the Enso Nyame Ye Chambers, has since April 11, 2022, filed a motion on notice committing the respondents for contempt before a Kumasi High Court, on behalf of the applicants, Borometch Construction Company Limited, Seidu Fanzia School and Samuel Aboagye.
In an affidavit in support of the motion filed on April 22, 2022, Samuel Aboakye, third plaintiff, applicant and deponent, on behalf of the applicants deposed that on April 12, 2021, the Kumasi High Court, presided over by His Lordship Justice E. Senyo Amedahe, granted an application for the arrest of the four Chinese illegal immigrants.
The deponent stated that the Chinese nationals were duly arrested and brought before the court on April 19, 2021, when the court admitted the four Chinese nationals to bail. The court also asked the Chinese immigrants to deposit their passports and work permits at the Registry of the court.
Mr. Aboagye also indicated that counsel for the second, third and fourth respondents filed a motion on notice for variation of the bail condition, which was refused, and the court ordered on June 3, 2021 that the Regional Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service effect the immediate deportation of the illegal migrants out of the Republic of Ghana to their country of origin.
Upon the deportation order, the respondents were handed over to the first respondent, Ghana Immigration Service.
On June 4, 2021, Counsel for the respondents filed a Notice of Appeal against the deportation order, but Counsel for plaintiffs in turn filed a motion on Notice for Stay of Execution of the deportation of the four respondents, which was also duly served on the GIS Regional Commander Immigration.
The deponent further stated that though the trial High Court on June15, 2021 dismissed the application for Stay of Execution, it was repeated at the Court of Appeal.
The third applicant stated that the first respondent, per his Counsel, Kwabena Amponsah, told the Court of Appeal that as at July 26, the Chinese nationals had been deported as directed by the trial court.
However, the Court of Appeal, sitting in Kumasi on July 26, 2021, granted an application of Stay of Execution of an order of a Kumasi High Court. The Appellate Court, presided over by Mrs. Justice A.M. Domakyaareh, said the Chinese respondents in the case would have to service their civil liability in court before they were deported, thus ordered the suspension of the deportation of the Chinese respondents.
The Court of Appeal had upheld the submissions of counsel of the plaintiffs/appellants/applicants that the ruling of the trial High Court Judge had occasioned substantial miscarriage of justice, since it (High Court) had not considered the destruction of the plaintiffs’ properties.
The deponent said, upon a search conducted at the Registry of the High Court in Kumasi, the first respondent had released the four other respondents without any court order in the face of the fact that they had not gone to the Registry to meet the bail conditions, and had been attending court subsequently on their own.
It is against these claims that the applicants were praying the court to punish the wrongful conduct of the respondents, including the Regional Commander of the GIS.
