ANTWI v. AMPONSAH AND ANOTHER [1961]DLHC593

Date	1961-12-04
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1961]DLHC593

OLLENNU J

DE GRAFT JOHNSON FOR THE APPLICANT

P.A. ADJETEY

STATE ATTORNEY

FOR THE RESPONDENT.

[1961]DLHC593
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&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;ANTWI

&nbsp;[HIGH COURT, ACCRA]

[1961] GLR 751

DATE: 4TH DECEMBER 1961.

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COUNSEL:&nbsp;&nbsp;

DE
GRAFT JOHNSON FOR THE APPLICANT.

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OLLENNU, J.

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&nbsp;

The applicant is plaintiff in a suit, No. L.135/60, which was
pending in this court in March, 1961. The respondent is the district
commissioner in charge of the Kibi district, which includes the village of
Sagyimase, eight miles away from Kibi. On the 21st March, 1961, the respondent
paid a visit to Sagyimase village in his official capacity. The incidents which
have led to the present proceedings took place on the occasion of that official
visit.

The acts of the respondent which are relied upon to sustain this
application to commit him for contempt of court are set out in paragraph 15 of
the affidavit of the applicant filed on the 2nd May, 1961, and are that the
respondent on that occasion threatened the applicant as follows:

“Know you that I am the district commissioner and I represent the
Government. You should discontinue the case you have brought against Mankrado
Kwabena Amponsah and Opanin Yaw Afum in the High Court, Accra, otherwise
whether you win the case or not I shall cause you to be arrested and detained
under the Preventive Detention Act.”

The first question is whether the respondent did offer those
threats. Evidence was led by the applicant and his witnesses that the
respondent offered the threats alleged, and other threats. Those other threats
being to the applicant and six other persons.

The respondent denied uttering those threatening words, and
alleged that all that happened on the occasion was that in a welcome address
given to him on his said visit, the Odikro of the village had mentioned the
names of the applicant and six others as persons who, though they attend at, do
not take part in, communal labour in connection with self-help projects of the
village, and had asked him as district commissioner to advise those seven men
to co-operate with the other villagers to carry out the self-help projects.

Counsel for the respondent spent much time in cross-examination.
The line of cross-examination when taken together with paragraph 4 of the
affidavit of the respondent filed on the 19th June, 1961, make it appear that
the respondent had had some report about the applicant and the other six men
before he went to the village on the date in question, and that it was not from
the address of the Odikro that he first got to know of the seven men. The said
paragraph 4 of the respondent’s affidavit reads as follows:

“I then addressed the people and told them that if they embarked
on development work in the town by communal labour the Government would give
them all encouragement and assistance; that I had received reports that some of
them were not participating in or contributing to the communal labour effort;
etc.”

Counsel for the applicant who came into the case at the last
moment, quite contrary to what the applicant and his witnesses had maintained,
also cross-examined on lines to show that the main point in the respondent’s
address was that the applicant and the other six persons were not co-operative,
or not co-operating fully in the performance of communal labour.