{"id":748982,"date":"2019-11-21T11:09:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T11:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2019\/11\/21\/agordzo-suffers-another-setback\/"},"modified":"2019-11-21T11:09:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T11:09:25","slug":"agordzo-suffers-another-setback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/11\/21\/agordzo-suffers-another-setback\/","title":{"rendered":"Agordzo Suffers Another Setback &#8211;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p> <strong>ACP\/Dr. Benjamin Agordzo <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Another attempt by lawyers for embattled ACP\/Dr.<br \/>\nBenjamin Agordzo to have him released from custody has suffered a setback.<\/p>\n<p>His lawyer, Martin Kpebu, had pleaded with a<br \/>\nKaneshie District Court in Accra to allow the senior police officer who has<br \/>\nbeen charged with treason over the coup plot to go home and be re-invited by<br \/>\nthe Bureau of National Investigations if the need be but the request was not<br \/>\ngranted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Initial<br \/>\nWithdrawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This was after the prosecution, led by ASP<br \/>\nSylvester Asare, withdrew the charge sheet based on which he was before the<br \/>\ncourt and he was momentarily discharged by the court presided over by<br \/>\nMagistrate Eleanor Barnes-Botchway.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mr. Kpebu, Section 60 of the<br \/>\nCriminal Act (Act 30) specifies how criminal proceedings can be commenced.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that once the charge sheet was<br \/>\nwithdrawn and he was duly discharged, the prosecution could not re-arrest him<br \/>\nor expect to arraign him based on a new charge sheet on the same day as he was<br \/>\nnot invited by the investigative bodies to give a statement which resulted in<br \/>\nthe new charge sheet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Opposition<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The prosecutor, ASP Asare, opposed the<br \/>\nsubmissions of the defence counsel, saying the withdrawal of the charge sheet<br \/>\ndoes not exclude them from substituting it and the Section 60 as quoted by the<br \/>\ndefence, is not applicable. <\/p>\n<p>He said there is no the law or practice<br \/>\ndirection which prohibits the prosecution from substituting a charge sheet in<br \/>\nan ongoing matter.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the withdrawal of a charge sheet<br \/>\nand a subsequent discharge does not constitute an acquittal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is the case of the prosecution that the<br \/>\nsuspect is discharged on a particular charge sheet registered with this court.<br \/>\nThis does not surface anywhere in our jurisprudence that withdrawal constitutes<br \/>\nan acquittal and the suspect should go home and be taken through a new process<br \/>\nby Section 60,\u201d ASP Asare added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Court<br \/>\nDecision<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The magistrate was of the opinion that a charge<br \/>\nsheet can be withdrawn by the prosecution at any time and substituted if the<br \/>\ncharges are the same and she does not see anything wrong with that.<\/p>\n<p>She, therefore, granted the request for the<br \/>\nprosecution to withdraw the charge sheet and momentarily discharged Dr. Agordzo.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Consolidate<br \/>\nCase<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The charge sheet covering the other nine<br \/>\naccused persons was also withdrawn and they were also momentarily discharged by<br \/>\nthe court.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution later entered a consolidated charge<br \/>\nand fact sheets which have all the accused persons on the same charge sheet<br \/>\nthis time around.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Charges<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The accused persons are now facing five counts<br \/>\nof treason felony, conspiracy to commit crime, namely<br \/>\ntreason, abetment of treason felony, and possession of explosives and<br \/>\nammunition without lawful excuse.<\/p>\n<p>Their plea was not taken as the charges are<br \/>\nindictable offences and the proper trial has to be done at the High Court.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Remand<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The accused persons were remanded by the court<br \/>\ninto police and military custody as the police say they are far advance with<br \/>\ntheir investigations and according to ASP Asare, the prosecution requires a few<br \/>\nweeks to get their house in order.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe say that in the coming weeks, we shall<br \/>\nindicate to this court our intention to commence the committal proceedings,\u201d he<br \/>\nsaid.<\/p>\n<p>The defence lawyers did not take kindly to the<br \/>\nrequest as they were not impressed with what they called the \u2018slow pace\u2019 of the<br \/>\ninvestigations.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Kpebu said government in a statement had<br \/>\nindicated that the activities of the accused was unravelled following 15 months<br \/>\nof surveillance and, therefore, wondered what other investigations were to be<br \/>\ndone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IGP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Dr. Agordzo has been released to the<br \/>\ncustody of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) on the orders of the court.<\/p>\n<p>This follows a request by his lawyer who told the court that there is convention in the police service where senior officers who find themselves in such situations are released to the IGP for custody.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BY Gibril Abdul Razak<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ACP\/Dr. Benjamin Agordzo Another attempt by lawyers for embattled ACP\/Dr. Benjamin Agordzo to have him released from custody has suffered a setback. His lawyer, Martin Kpebu, had pleaded with a Kaneshie District Court in Accra to allow the senior police officer who has been charged with treason over the coup plot to go home and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":739732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Agordzo Suffers Another Setback - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/11\/21\/agordzo-suffers-another-setback\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Agordzo Suffers Another Setback - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"ACP\/Dr. Benjamin Agordzo Another attempt by lawyers for embattled ACP\/Dr. Benjamin Agordzo to have him released from custody has suffered a setback. 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