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December 4, 1961
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.
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 [p.753] 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
AI Generated Summary
In proceedings before Justice Ollennu, an applicant who was the plaintiff in High Court suit No. L.135/60 sought to commit the Kibi District Commissioner for contempt following an official visit to Sagyimase on 21 March 1961. The applicant alleged that the District Commissioner threatened him to discontinue his High Court case against Mankrado Kwabena Amponsah and Opanin Yaw Afum, warning that regardless of outcome he would be arrested and detained under the Preventive Detention Act. The respondent denied issuing threats, asserting he addressed communal labour. The court credited Abena Ampofowaa and C.P.P. chairman Paul Oduro, accepted that threats were made, and noted political tensions between United Party supporters and the C.P.P. Citing Helmore v. Smith and other authorities, the court held that contempt protects the administration of justice. Because the threats targeted a party and did not obstruct court process or cause a miscarriage, they did not constitute contempt, and the application was dismissed with costs.