A court in Accra, presided over by Samuel Bright Acquah, said that Greater Accra Minister Henry Quartey’s security details should be changed after his family head is said to have attacked him.
He said that his security details should be changed if someone could slap a whole regional minister.
He said this on Thursday, November 8, 2022, when a man named Nii Odoi Kwao II, also known as Robert Koomson and 61 years old, who is said to be the head of the regional minister’s family and a retired computer programmer, was brought before him for allegedly hitting and threatening to kill Mr. Henry Quartey in traffic.
Nii Odoi Kwao II has been charged with blocking a road, threatening to kill someone, assaulting a public servant, and being rude in a way that makes people want to fight.
The 61-year-old man pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and will stay in police custody for another six days.
The prosecution team, led by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Evans Kesse, told the court about the case.
Just the facts
The Prosecuting Officer said that the complainant in the case was a police officer who worked at VVIP and was the dispatcher for the Greater Accra regional minister. The accused is a retired computer programmer who lives in Accra’s Osu.
He said that on December 8, 2022, at about 1:10 p.m., Mr. Quartey and his security team were in Osu. When they got to a certain part of the road, they saw that the accused had blocked it with his Kia Bongo car, making it impossible for the Minister and others to use the road.
The court heard that the complainant tried to get the accused to move out of the way for him and the other people on the road, but the accused refused and said that no one can use the road until he finishes what he was doing.
“Because of what the accused person did, there was a lot of traffic on that stretch of road. Based on that, the Honorable Minister decided to tell the accused person to move his car off the road, but the accused person didn’t listen to the Regional Minister,” the court was told.
The prosecution says that the accused instead got violent and said that if the Regional Minister (Nii Odoi Kwao II) got any closer, he would kill him (Mr Quartey).
In addition to the threat, the accused said hurtful things about the minister, such as that he is a thief who has stolen state money but is still free to move around.
The prosecutor said that the suspect later left the car in the middle of the road, locked it, took the key out of the ignition, put it in his pocket, and then ran up to the Regional Minister and hit him.
At this time, the regional minister’s security team, which the court says should be changed, moved quickly to arrest the accused person and turn him over to the Regional Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Accra.
During the investigation, the accused is said to have admitted to the crime in his caution statement. He was then charged with the crimes and brought before the court for trial.
Application for Bail
Justice Nana Oppong was the lawyer for the regional minister, and Akwasi Opoku Agyemang was the lawyer for the person who was accused.
Mr. Agyemang asked the court to let the accused out on bail because the accusations came from a family matter and both the minister and Nii Odoi Kwao II were from the same family.
He said that the accused person is the head of the family and that a deal could be made outside of court.
In the same way, the accused is not likely to run away and has solid people willing to stand surety for him, so he should be given bail.
But the prosecution fought against bail, bringing the court’s attention to count 2 (threat of death) and the overwhelming event that led to the minister being attacked.
He asked the judge to keep the accused in jail for a week so that the prosecution could file all the necessary paperwork.
The accused
When the court clerk called out the case, the accused walked up to the box, but he told the court that he was too sick to stand, so he asked the judge to let him sit down.
The court agreed to his request, and he sat through the whole case. When it was over, the police put him in handcuffs and took him away.
Source: The Chronicle
