Outspoken New Patriotic Party’s Brong Ahafo regional youth coordinator, Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as ‘Abronye DC’ is seeking support from the public to meet the GH¢31,200 slapped on 13 members of Pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) vigilante group who escaped lawful custody.
According to him, he has personally donated GH¢ 1,000 towards meeting the amount and urged well meaning members of the party who want the welfare of the party to help in cash.
“We don’t have money like the NDC who signed cheques and gave to the court to pay the fine for the Montie 3. Seth Tekper paid the cheque on their behalf but we do not have that amount and what we can do is solicit funds to help them”, he told Kumasi-based Abusua Fm.
He admitted the 13 may have acted wrongly but said the party cannot despite them in their time of need relating it to a relation of one’s family who has flouted the law and must not be allowed to face the consequences alone.
“They are still members of the NPP and we will not allow them to suffer alone. I am doing this on my own volition no party official has sanctioned it”, he added.
All 13 members of Pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) vigilante group Delta Force last week were convicted to a fine of GH¢31,200 in total for escaping lawful custody last Thursday.
A Kumasi ourt presided over , Judge Ekow Mensah convicted each person to a fine of GH¢2,400 which is equivalent to 200 penalty units after all pleaded guilty to the offence of escaping from lawful custody as charged.
Additionally, the suspects are expected to sign a bond of good behavior within the period they are to be appearing before the court on other charges.
In his judgment, the trial judge said she was lenient with them because they were first time offenders and because they also surrendered themselves to the police and thereby saved the police the time in going to look for them.
It also said she took into consideration the guilty plea by the 13 which also saved the court the time of going through an entire trial.
Background
The suspects who were linked to attack on the Regional Security Coordinator Mr. George Adjei were arraigned before the court on various charges ranging from conspiracy to assault and assaulting a public officer and causing to unlawful damage
Shortly after the case was called and their pleas taken, the trial Judge, Mary Senkyire demanded they should be remanded in prison custody until the next adjourned date which is 20th of April, 2017.
Her pronouncement drew uproar in the courtroom and before she could move back into her chamber, more members of the group were called in by some of their colleagues and started destroying property of the court freeing the accused persons in the process
In the ensuing melee, the judge who was almost assaulted by the group managed to flee and run into safety before she could be pounced on coupled with the arrival of a police reinforcement team saving the situation.
It would be recalled that some members of the Delta Force on March 24, 2017 stormed the Ashanti regional coordinating council and forcefully demanded the removal of the regional security coordinator.
George Adjei was appointed by the President for the post but according but the groups claim they cannot work with him because he is not from the region.
They broke into Adjei’s office manhandled him and asked him to leave the premises.
It took the timely intervention of the Police to rescue Adjei who was whisked to the Central Police station for protection.
Initially, five suspects were arrested including the 37-year-old auto mechanic Kwadwo Bamba who is the organizer of the group.
Abubakar Sadiq Abdul Hameed, Jamil Issah and Hamza Mohammed later turned themselves to the police on Monday March 27, 2017 after being declared wanted for their roles in the violence at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council. But the police managed to arrest Awal Sadat Abubakar and others bringing the number of suspects to 13 and arraigned them before court only for their colleagues to attempt disrupting proceedings.
