A businessman in Sunyani, Mr. Samuel Bennett, has urged Ghanaians to resort to the law courts for redress, rather than taking the law into their hands.
According to him: “It is important to give the courts maximum regard and respect the legal processes to take its course to maintain the confidence and trust citizens have in them.”
Mr. Bennet was interacting with a section of the press in Sunyani about how some police and immigration personnel, numbering over 20, recently stormed his private residence in Sunyani to forcefully take-away two of his grand-children in connection with a case pending at the court over the custody of the said children.
Mr. Bennet, therefore, appealed to the parties to allow the court process to conclude and respect the final ruling for peace to prevail.
Early morning raid
Mr. Bennet recalled that on July 22, 2022, he returned from early morning mass and noticed that his private residence had been surrounded by several police and immigration personnel in the company of a lawyer, Emmanuel Amoah.
According to him, he asked the lawyer about their mission and was told that “they had come to take two of my grand-children from the house.”
“I inquired from the Sunyani High Court if they had granted anyone the power to take away my grand-children from my house, and I was told that the court had not granted any such request, even though Lawyer Amoah and his people were there to make that request, it was not granted,” Mr. Bennet explained.
“On my return from the court, Lawyer Amoah and the security personnel were still hovering around my house, so I asked him why he, as a lawyer, was doing that, but he boldly told me that he was carrying out the exercise based on “an order”, and that’s why he was there with personnel from the police and immigration,” he said.
This resulted in exchanges between the businessman and the lawyer for sometime before the security personnel finally left the scene.
Mr. Bennet pleaded with anyone who had an issue with him to resort to the law courts, rather than take the law into their hands.
“It is my hope that the unfortunate incident would not repeat itself, because we are hearing big men who are politically-connected are believed to be behind this, so let’s see what happens,” he said.
The Case
Available information indicates that a daughter of Mr. Sam Bennet (name withheld) and her former husband, Eric Asante, were in court over who should take custody of their two daughters, with the eldest being four years, while the other was one-and-half years old.
The couple used to live in the U.K., but after their divorce, Mr. Sam Bennet’s daughter returned to Ghana with the children, a situation which did not sit well with her former husband, hence, the legal tussle, which was currently before a Sunyani High Court.
