A legal expert, Opoku Agyemang has called for the review of sections of the Narcotic Law that prevents or bars suspects of narcotic offences from being granted bail.
According to him, the current situation that pertains where drug suspects who are arrested are refused bail is not the best because innocent people may be held in custody without enough evidence.
Opoku Agyemang made the suggestion following a clash between a judge at the Osu Magistrate Court and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) over the granting of bail of some suspected drug dealers on Thursday.
While the suspects had been granted bail by a High Court and the judge was upholding the decision, the BNI claimed it was re-arresting them because they were involved in another case which they would not disclose.
A back and forth argument ensued among the judge, the suspects’ counsel and the BNI with the Greater Accra Regional police having to intervene to resolve the matter; the police was eventually given the mandate to take the suspects into custody.
Speaking to Frimpong Manso Adakabre on Dwaso Nsem on Adom FM Friday, lawyer Opoku Agyemang, who is also a lecturer at the University of Ghana Law School said once a high court had earlier granted the suspects bail, the judge, who presides over a lower court could not have overturned that decision adding the lower courts take cues from High court decisions.
He argued that even though it is mandatory that drug related offenders should not be granted bail, it is the duty of the prosecution to produce enough evidence to prove that the suspects are indeed guilty and should be denied bail.
He said even though there is no question about the fact that a suspect in a drug related offence should not be granted bail, the prosecution should get their facts together to keep the suspect in jail because “if the prosecution has no evidence or whatsoever to establish that this is narcotic, “‘konkonte’ can be a powder in Ghana yet it can be a narcotic to somebody in another country.”
“The judge is not a robot; if you look at the Evidence Act, the law clearly states that the evidence act should be applied fairly to ensure justice; though the judge knows the offence is not one in which bail can be granted, the question is where is the evidence,’ he asked.
Lawyer Opoku Agyemang argued that facts must be established before one can think about bail or no bail “bail is a secondary issue, first you have to establish that a narcotic offence has been committed that must be proven, if you can’t prove that one how do you proceed to talk about bailing,” he queried.
Lawyer Opoku Agyemang said it was time for people to stop their emotional reactions to court judgments adding that judges are now concentrating more on the liberty of the people under the rule of law.
Story: Akuamoah Boateng/Adom News/Ghana
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