POLICE PROSECUTOR UNMASKED

·      But Denies Case Padding

The sparks of rotten attitude posing the Ghanaian police prosecutors - also known as JUPO – Judicial Police Unit, as grinches that cause glitches in Ghana’s criminal justice system, have once again been exposed.

In a latest case being monitored by The Republic, a police prosecutor attached to the 28 February (Rd) courts popularly referred to, as Cocoa Affairs Courts, after successfully preventing a gorily-harmed complainant from participating in court proceedings attempting redress and in which she was a Prosecution Witness (PW1), in favour of the accused, got his hands burnt in that process.

There had been several such unfortunate incidents today in Ghanaian courts, the paper’s covert team is investigating – where in several cases it was found out that both complainants and accused in criminal cases continue, on demand-for-favour, to douse the police investigators, prosecutors and, in few, cases some court clerks with gifts, ranging from money, through food stuff and livestock, to vehicle spare parts.

Interestingly, some unscrupulous lower court judges are also cited stooping so low participating in these antisocial acts, which are almost always eventually end into travesty of justice.

In this particular case, however, the Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Jubiok, was able to dubiously prevent on two consecutive court adjourned dates, and also generated good fun of giving wrong dates to the bodily-harmed victim, whose case he was handling, from entering the ‘Domestic Violence’ Courtroom ‘6’, with flimsy excuses that the presiding judge hadn’t been sitting.

The Prosecutor’s antics, however, hit a snag, when on Monday July 15^th 2013, his third attempt to block the courtroom entrance and ‘adjourn case’ on behalf of the Honourable presiding judge, was resisted by now wised-up PW1, whose docket was right before the seated judge.

The complainant relates that when she arrived at the court premises that morning, she decided to breastfeed her baby before entering in, in order not to disturb the court, should the infant becomes hungry with court in process.

She said on two occasions she had been ignorant enough to have heeded to the Police Prosecutor, in whom she had grown enough trust, lie to her that: “The judge was sick; the judge was attending a relative funeral and for that matter wouldn’t sit amongst other pieces of mendacity, until a person she had before met in the courtroom one day spilt the beans that judge and the court had been sitting every working day.

“That day, I finished breastfeeding my baby at the entrance of the court and wanted to enter when from nowhere the prosecutor attempted to push me off, repeating the ‘judge was not sitting antic; I pushed him aside and forced my way inside the courtroom only to see the judge sitting”: the domestic violence victim disclosed.

“On entering, I became dumbfounded seeing the two accused persons sitting in the courtroom; and I was so surprised a trusted police officer could behave the way he did”; she continued.

The victim told The Republic that, when the case was mentioned immediately she entered into the courtroom with her auntie, the prosecutor, now-confused, with the assistance of a court clerk they simply call ‘Sammy’ whispered a statement of lie to the judge that ‘it was a small land case’ and thus, suggested its resolution at the now-criminal shelter of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

There was where the drama ensued: Annoyed by the strange behavior of these Ghanaian officers of the justice, the Auntie removed copies of photographs taken by the victim on the day of the assault, which was clearly far from “Land matter”, and flipped same high toward the judge to see. This threw the packed courtroom into state of clamouring.

She said the prosecutor became worried at her strange behaviour, and voiced this out after the day’s court session. “You have worried me”; she alleged the police Chief Inspector had to say later, as he suggests, reiterating the ‘ADR thing’.

Like other prosecutors and their complainants and accused, the innocent victim’s wasn’t different. She greased the police-palm.

“I do not have money but the prosecutor took various sums from me and my auntie, I had to ‘envelop’ on more than one occasion to the prosecutor; in fact, not less than GHc200.00 had gone into it”; she alleged.

However, when The Republic bumped into Police Prosecutor Chief Inspector Jubiok on the Cocoa Affairs court premises Friday, he denies everything the PW1 has told this paper.

“Yes; I know the lady, but I have never ever prevented her from entering the court on any stated occasion”; the prosecutor said.

In fact, I have no such mandate; me? Never! C/Insp Jubiok swore.

The auntie, (name withheld) of the assault victim and complainant, however, confirmed her nieces’ story to The Republic; affirming also that she was the one who raised the photographs to alert the judge in the open court when the prosecutor and clerk Sammy lied to the judge that it was a ‘small land matter’. “My niece has never bought any land;” they lied; she intoned.

She told The Republic that the substantive matter though has been attempted to address at the ADR it couldn’t hold; and it is going back to the court on the 9^th of September.

The Republic investigations have so far revealed sordid trends of how prosecutors and other court officials connive and condone, with party(s) to hide litigating party’s dockets for personal gains.

The paper also heard from insider-volunteers, how even the corrupt syndicate with beneficiary members in the offices of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice do, in some cases put out dockets, for fees, - resulting in non-prosecution of affected criminals. They disclosed that, the dockets could be permanently hidden from the reach of the courts through unscrupulous people within the Attorney-General’s. They charge fees:

The court has been hearing the case in which one Nikoi of Teshie reportedly attacked the victim (in her own bedroom) a co-tenant of his (Nikoi’s) girlfriend, Hannah, with wood and knife over all-female domestic misunderstanding.

The paper was told by legal people that by preventing the main witness from court proceedings, Prosecutor Jubiok was thus seeking that, doing so on few occasions can cause the presiding judge to dismiss or strike off the case for a reason of lack of prosecution.