Two lawyers attack reporters in court

Friday, November 28, 2008 (Page 54)

TWO young male lawyers yesterday caused a stir at the newly designated Human Rights Court in Accra, when they threw all courtesies to the dogs and verbally attacked some reporters covering a case in the court.
The reporters were covering the case in which three lawyers have dragged the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) to court for demanding the resignation of the former national President of the GBA, Nii Osah Mills.
While lawyers for the GBA and the plaintiffs, Messrs Ace Ankomah and Mr Kwabla Senanu, were busily arguing their case, the young lawyers were also busily ‘manhandling’ two female reporters from the Ghana News Agency (GNA) and the Daily Graphic.
The judge, Mr Justice U. Y. Dery, a High Court Judge, was also busily taking down notes when the incident occurred at the gallery reserved for the public and, for that reason, did not witness the bizarre event.
It all started when one of the lawyers, whose name was given only as Gyau, entered the packed-to-capacity courtroom with a female colleague and ordered a reporter from the Atlantis Radio to get up for him (Gyau) to sit down.
The reporter, who even though did know he had the right to sit on that seat, got up and allowed Gyau to sit down.
Gyau then turned to the GNA reporter and blurted “stand up” apparently to enable his female colleague to take her seat.
The reporter, who had earlier vacated a seat for another lawyer under similar circumstance, looked at the lawyer in bewilderment.
The Daily Graphic reporter, who was by then witnessing the unfair manner in which her colleague was being treated, informed the lawyer that it was not decent to rudely order the GNA reporter to vacate her seat, especially when the seats were reserved for the public.
Gyau got angry, pointed accusing fingers and asked the Daily Graphic reporter what right she had to question his authority as a lawyer and there and then began using unprintable words on her.
The Daily Graphic reporter, who remained unperturbed and demanded to know why her colleague should be treated in such a demeaning manner, had the shock of her life when a plump-looking young lawyer with fat cheeks tapped her on the right shoulder several times from behind. His heckling was followed with a stream of insults and questioning why she should question his “learned” colleague.
The GNA reporter left the courtroom to avoid being heckled, while the two male lawyers launched verbal attacks on the Daily Graphic reporter, who was by then taking down notes of the court’s proceedings.
The trial judge was at the time not privy to what was happening because he was caught up in the heated arguments between lawyers for the GBA and the plaintiffs.
Nevertheless, the Daily Graphic reporter ignored the two lawyers whose female colleague sat in the GNA reporter’s seat without any regrets.
Senior lawyers, including Nana Ato Dadzie, Mr Chris Arcmann-Ackumey, Mr Ace Ankomah, Mr Frank Davies, Mr Peter Zwennes and Mr Kwabla Senanu, who heard of the incident after the court’s proceedings, unreservedly apologised to the reporters for being treated with such disdain.
Two hours before the incident, a senior male lawyer, whose name was given only as Dzakpasu, had ordered all reporters in the courtroom to vacate their seats to enable lawyers to sit down at the public gallery.
As if that was not enough, some lawyers in the courtroom pointed accusing fingers at the GNA reporter that she was recording the court’s proceedings.
Another lawyer, however, owned up and said he was recording the court’s proceedings with his tape recorder. A court clerk then seized the recorder.
The plaintiffs, Nana Ato Dadzie, Mr Chris Arcmann-Ackumey and Mr James Abiaduka, are praying the court to declare that comments which were purported to have been made by Nii Mills, which bordered on the incarceration of Tsatsu Tsikata, were “lawful comments made in his legitimate position as national president of the association”.
They are, therefore, praying the court to declare as illegal the demand and the request of the GBA on Nii Mills to resign his position as national president.
The plaintiffs have, meanwhile, filed a motion on notice for an order of interlocutory injunction to restrain the GBA from holding fresh elections to elect a national president until the final determination of the matter.
The GBA, in its statement of defence, has denied ever coercing Nii Mills to resign.
According to the GBA, at its Bar conference in Kumasi on October 30, 2008, Nii Mills, on his own volition, read out a written statement he had prepared himself to the conference to announce his resignation from office.
It said Nii Mills voluntarily withdrew his nomination and apologised for whatever harm he might have caused the association.
The court has fixed December 4, 2008 to rule on the motion for interlocutory injunction.