The most senior judge in the Upper East Region, Justice Charles Adjei Wilson, has issued a warning against a Chinese national who works as a director at the Shaanxi Mining Company and 10 other persons to stay away from his residence.
The public would recall that Justice Wilson’s immediate predecessor, Justice Jacob Bawine Boon, had found himself on the receiving end of nationwide condemnation after investigative journalist Edward Adeti caught him and some Shaanxi officials four times having secret meetings at Justice Boon’s residence. Shaanxi and Cassius Mining Company (a firm from Australia) were having a case before Justice Boon at the time. Cassius had sued Shaanxi for trespass of concession and theft of gold ore.
When Justice Boon was confronted with evidence of the ex-parte meetings, he admitted that the Shaanxi officials visited him at his residence. Then, he was disqualified from the case and was subsequently transferred to Obuasi in the Ashanti Region after Adeti had blown the cover on the secret meetings Justice Boon had with the officials from the Chinese company. Many welcomed the transfer of Justice Boon as a relegation as he was moved from the Upper East Region where he had been the Upper East Regional Supervising High Court Judge to Obuasi where he would now work under the supervision of the Ashanti Regional Supervising High Court Judge.
The findings made by Adeti also led to the resignation of a Minister of State at the Presidency, Rockson Ayine Bukari, in 2019 for trying to bribe the journalist on behalf of Shaanxi to kill the investigative story about Shaanxi and Justice Boon.
Justice Wilson, who replaced Justice Boon in 2021, told the director of the Chinese company and the other persons, who are standing trial for contempt in a civil case before him at the High Court 1 in Bolgatanga, to keep their distance from his residence or risk having him unleash on them some wild dogs he said he got from the late top lawyer, John Ndebugre.
The High Court judge’s warning comes as he is scheduled to deliver a ruling on Monday June 27, 2022, on a contempt application filed against the 11 respondents in a land-lease-related case.
The case was initiated by the Chief of Namoalugo (Naab Kolsong Na-Laam Nyuureb) and some elders of the Namoalugo Traditional Area against the Chinese firm (which is also known as Earl International Group) and some individuals from Gban and Gaare, two communities in the Talensi District. The contempt application was filed on behalf of the applicants by their lawyers, Dr. Peter Atudiwe Atupare, Limann A. Mohammed and Sammy Kwame Domeh.
Some court observers believe the warming became necessary because Shaanxi has a history of visiting Justice Boon who was sitting on a case involving the Chinese company, and again Shaanxi is involved in a case before Justice Wilson who has set a date for a ruling on a contempt application on the case. But after the warning had been served, the leading lawyer for the respondents, Robert N. Tater, asked that the warning go to both parties. Although the warning was initially directed at only the respondents, the judge granted the lawyer’s request by warning both parties to stay away from his house.
