A complaint has been filed at the General Legal Council (GLC) against the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Jirapa, Nicholas Soyiri, over his refusal to refund a legal fee he received from a miner.
The miner, Musah Issah, says Mr Soyiri demanded Gh¢4,000 from him in 2018 when he sought his service as a lawyer for a case at the High Court 1 in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region. Mr Soyiri had practiced as a lawyer before he was appointed as MCE for Jirapa in November, 2021.
“Lawyer Soyiri charged me Gh¢4,000 for the hearing of the case until it is determined. Lawyer Soyiri failed to attend court on the 4th day of November, 2021. The case was, therefore, adjourned. I called Lawyer Soyiri to inform him of the next adjourned date scheduled to be on the 10th day of November, 2021.
“Lawyer Soyiri in his response told me that he was done with the case and that he could no longer be my lawyer because he had been given an appointment by the President of the Republic of Ghana. Lawyer Soyiri further stated that I could go and look for another lawyer and said he would not pay back the monies he collected from me,” Mr Issah told the Council in a petition.
The petitioner further entreated the council to “implore him to refund my money enable me engage another lawyer…and to apply any sanctions deemed fit since his conduct constitutes a breach of agreement and fraud”.
When contacted for his side of the story, the MCE said he had not received any communication from the council with respect to the petition. He added that the case in question had been struck out of court.
But the petitioner maintains that Mr Soyiri abandoned the case before it was struck out contrary to the agreement they had that he (Mr Soyiri) would defend him until the end of the case if he (Mr Issah) paid him Gh¢4,000. The court, according to Mr Issah, struck out the case titled “The Republic Vrs Muntaka and Others” in 2022 because there was no evidence to back the charges being pressed against him.
Copies of the petition have been mailed to the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). Meanwhile, another person, Charles Akurugu Akolgo, has made known his intention to file a complaint at the council against Mr Soyiri. Mr Akolgo, a businessman, says he engaged Mr Soyiri in 2019 for a civil case involving him and a businesswoman at the District Magistrate Court in Bolgatanga. According to him, Mr Soyiri received Gh¢3,000 from him, appeared only twice in court and walked out on the case contrary to the agreement between them. He says the lawyer-turned-MCE has refused to refund his money and he no longer answers whenever he places telephone calls to him.
