Court indicts Accra Mayor

June 9, 2011 (Page 3 Lead)

The Accra Fast Track High Court Wednesday indicted the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Dr Alfred Vanderpuije, for deliberately refusing to accept service of two contempt applications pending against him and another.

The court, accordingly, gave him seven days to respond to the contempt applications or risk having the case proceed without his defence.

Following a plea from counsel for the AMA, Ms Selina Fenteng, that Dr Vanderpuije was billed to travel to the United States with the Vice-President on official business for two weeks, the court adjourned the case to June 28, 2011, instead of the earlier date of June 14, 2011.

In the first contempt application, Dr Vanderpuije and a consultant of the AMA, Mr John Yankah, have been accused of allegedly flouting a court order which directed them not to pull down billboards belonging to the Advertisers Association of Ghana (AAG) until the final determination of a suit brought against the assembly by the AAG.

In the other application, the two have also been accused of ignoring a motion which challenged Dr Vanderpuije for contravening the Public Procurement Act (PPA) instituted against him by Lead Advertising (Gh) Limited by directing payment of GH¢177,964.57 to Mr Yankah.

Mr Yankah is accused of accepting payments from the AMA at a time a contract awarded to his company by the AMA was being challenged as illegal and contravening the PPA.

The court’s ruling was based on the evidence of a bailiff, Mr Boakye Yiadom Baffour, who said the Mayor had refused to accept service of the applications when he (bailiff) went to the AMA office on June 3, 2011 to direct service.

Mr Baffour informed the court that the Chief Bailiff had given him the two contempt applications to be served on the Mayor on May 31, 2011 but he did not meet the Mayor on that day, adding that he again went to the AMA offices around 7 a.m. on June 3, 2011 to personally effect service of the application on the Mayor, who arrived around 8:05 a.m.

The bailiff informed the court that he greeted the Mayor and introduced himself as a bailiff who had come to serve him with two contempt applications but the Mayor directed him to give the documents to his security guard.

According to Mr Baffour, he informed the Mayor that because it was a contempt application, the Mayor was expected to personally sign for it but the Mayor walked out on him while directing him to give the documents to his security guard.

The bailiff informed the court that the security guard, a police officer, went to the Mayor’s office with the documents but returned barely a minute later with them, claiming that the Mayor said he had just arrived in the office and so the bailiff should wait but he (bailiff) declined to wait and, accordingly, left the documents with the police officer.

Basing its ruling on Order 7 Rule 3 (2) of High Court Rules (CI 47), the court, presided over by Mr Justice Peter Dei-Offei, held that it was overwhelmingly clear from the bailiff’s evidence that the Mayor had been approached but he had refused to accept service.

Order 7 Rule 3 (2) of CI 47 states, “Where personal service of a document on a person is hindered by violence or threat or other acts of obstruction of that person or any other person with or under that person, it shall be sufficient for the person effecting service to leave it as near that person as may be practicable.”

According to the court, it would have been acceptable if the bailiff had left the documents at the doorstep of the Mayor.

The court stated that it was clear Via Afrinity Ghana Limited had not been served and further directed that the company be served before the next adjourned date.