I didn’t deliberately refuse to appear in court – B/A NPP Chair talks about his arrest

The Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr. Thomas Adu Appiah has refuted reports that he deliberately failed to appear in court several months after being joined in a suit, which led to his arrest on Wednesday.

According to Chairman Thoma as he’s popularly known in political circles, he had a shock of his life when he together with the Regional Secretary were arrested at the Sunyani High court 3 premises when he went there to make an enquiry about the case.

Information gathered by Naagyeifmonline.com suggests that an injunction by the Berekum West branch of the NPP last year restraining the regional executive elections was defied forcing the court to slap the leader of the party in the region for contempt of court.

He was subsequently granted a GHC20, 000 bail following which the court ordered him to appear on the 8^th of February 2019 for hearing.

In an interview with host Henry Lord on Naagyei FM, Thursday, Chairman Thoma explained that after the National Office of the party was served with the writ following which Deputy General Secretary, Nana Obiri Boahen, a trained lawyer was assigned to handle the case, he (Chairman Thoma) didn’t find it necessary to be regular in court during hearings.

“I was unaware of the last adjourned date of the suit involving the constituency elections committee, the MP for the area, Hon. Kwaku Agyenim Boateng and others since I was out of town. So I decided with my Regional Secretary to check from the High court only for us to be shockingly arrested because we’ve failed to appear before court whenever we are called.My lawyers had to come in and seek a motion of application for bail for me which was granted by the court.”

He added that the National Headquarters of the NPP has detailed four lawyers headed by Lawyer Nana Obiri Boahen to handle the case which next hearing is on Friday, February 8, 2019.