Judge worried over high homicide cases in Volta region

17/03/08
THE Supervising High Court Judge of the Volta Region, Mr Justice Gibson Adzagli, has expressed concern over the high rate of homicide in the region and called for concerted efforts to curb it.
According to him, out of 17 cases of felony prepared for hearing at the courts, as many as 16 concerned murders, attempted murders and manslaughter, with the last one being rape.
Mr Justice Adzagli made this known when he addressed the opening session of the 2008 assizes to be held at the High Court and the swearing in of jurors in Ho on Wednesday.
He appealed to lawyers, the police, prison officers, jurors, as well as accused persons, to play their roles well in order to make criminal assizes a success.
In an address, the Chief State Attorney for the Volta Region, Mrs Felicia Otchere-Darko, expressed dissatisfaction at the inability of prosecutors to produce witnesses at the courts and blamed the police for partially causing it and eventually causing delay in trials.
She said witnesses who attended court usually complained of failure to reimburse them, making it difficult for them to continue doing their civil duty.
Mrs Otchere-Darko further said police investigators relaxed in their duty to produce witnesses, with the complaint that they lacked transport facilities, adding that police responses to wireless messages were also poor.
She, therefore, suggested that station officers should do proper hand over of case dockets to enable fluid liaison between the police and the Attorney-General’s Department and warned that the usual excuse of the original investigator being “on leave, on course, on transfer, on peace mission abroad or on retirement” would not be allowed to retard cases.
The Chief State Attorney advised jurors to exercise diligence in their work and conduct themselves in accordance with the rules by eschewing corruption and absenteeism in court, stressing that their absence would cause cases to be unduly delayed.
The President of the Volta Regional Branch of the Ghana Bar Association, Mr Saviour Dzikunu, commended prison officers for their co-operation in the handling of remand prisoners.
The Deputy Volta Regional Police Commander, Mr Jones Osei-Agyemang, said the charges levelled against the police had been carefully noted and promised that the necessary action would be taken to address them.