Nii Lamptey Mills granted bail

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 (Page 3 Lead)

THE Circuit Court in Accra today granted self recognisance bail to the Proprietor of the Great Lamptey Mills Institute, Enoch Nii Lamptey Mills, who has been charged with compulsory marriage.
Mills, alias Mr Tee, allegedly impregnated one of his former students and forced her to marry him at age 16 but he had denied any wrongdoing.
He appeared before the court alongside two other accused persons namely Georgina Sabah, the victim’s mother and Evelyn Engmann, the victim’s grandmother, who were charged with abetment.
The two women were also granted self recognisance bail by the court, presided over by Mrs Georgina Mensah-Datsa.
Reporters were subjected to unprintable insults by Georgina. She openly cursed the reporters and said each of them would die if they went ahead to publish her trial.
She questioned reporters whether they went to journalism school only to end up covering her trial.
She further threatened to slap a male reporter but the reporters ignored her and went about their duties.
Georgina, cursed the reporters both inside and outside the courtroom. She was, however, restrained by Mills who was clad in an all white linen apparel.
Mills’ left the Cocoa Affairs Court premises around 11.45 am in the company of friends and sympathisers after he had signed his bail bond.
Earlier, counsel for Mills, Mr Bannerman Williams, informed the court that the victim’s family had met on the issue and the family had agreed to settle the matter out of court.
According to counsel, the offence was a misdemeanour and to add to that the family had taken into account the fact that there was a child between Mills and the victim.
Counsel said the family agreed that the welfare of the child will be better protected and promoted if the matter was resolved out of court.
After his submissions, the trial judge questioned the whereabouts of the complainant in the case but the prosecutor said the complainant was not available.
The matter was stood down for about 20 minutes but the complainant did not show up when the matter was called again.
In reply to defence counsel’s submission, the trial judge held that the head of the family, who had written a letter for an out of court settlement was not present when the offence was committed.
The court was also of the view that the complainant had not seen a copy of the letter and it was therefore, prudent for the complainant to made aware of developments.
It accordingly adjourned the matter to Thursday, October 22, 2009.
The accused person looked composed as usual when he appeared in court in the company of his lawyer.
According to the prosecution, the Mills’ relationship with the girl started when he was paying the victim’s school fees after she had informed him that her parents were unable to pay her fees.
He was alleged to have promised to compensate the victim with a building and further promised to take the then yet-to-be-born child to South Africa to for education while the victim would remain in Ghana to continue her education to the university level.
However, Mills had allegedly failed to keep to his promise of building a house for her, providing for the upkeep of the mother and the child, as well as restoring the girl to school a year after the child was born.
Great Lamptey-Mills Institute, formerly Lamptey-Mills Institute, was established on February 4, 1963 by the late Rev Abraham Samuel Lamptey-Mills after whom the school was named.
The Junior High School Department was later established on September 31, 1994 by the current director of the school, Mr Enoch Lamptey-Mills.
The Senior Secondary Department was also founded in 2005 by the same director.
He was among a number of persons who received national awards last year.