The aggrieved family of Gregory Afoko expressed their disappointment as security operatives denied them access to a meeting and presenting a petition to the Vice President and presidential candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, on Friday, July 26, 2024.
According to the aggrieved family members, Gregory Afoko is a prince from the Sandema chief palace. When the family heard that the Vice President was coming to visit the Overlord of the Builsa Traditional, Nab Azag-Suk Azantilow II, the family decided to wear T-shirts and hold placards to get the attention of the Vice President and possibly present a petition to plead with him to intervene in their brother Mr. Gregory Afoko’s case.
According to the police, the decision was necessary to safeguard the security and public health of the Vice President and his team, as well as the general public, from any security threats.
The aggrieved family members were therefore prevented by the police from meeting Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia when he got to the Sandema chief palace.
The landlord for the Afoko family, Mr. John Afoko, when speaking to the media after an unsuccessful attempt to meet the Vice President, said the act by the police is an affront to their dignity as citizens and immediate family members to their suffering brother, Gregory Afoko.
“Our rights are being trampled upon as family members. Our rights to meet the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, are not granted. We are Ghanaians, we are family members, and we deserve dignity,” he added.
Madam Cynthia Afoko, a daughter of the accused person (Gregory Afoko), when speaking to the media, cried profusely over the continuous detention of her father by the state for eight years.
She said the continuous detention of her father was not fair, given the fact that he was granted bail. She described the state’s decision to rescind granting bail to her father after his continuous unlawful detention as a travesty of justice and an affront to human rights.
Madam Cynthia Afoko added that the family would petition any presidential candidate who visits the palace of the Overlord of the Builsa Traditional Area and other human rights activists to seek justice for her suffering and manhandled father.
“It’s a political season and the appeal was not only for Bawumia but for all the presidential aspirants who will come to our house (the Sandema chief palace). We didn’t see the need to get a permit from the police because we didn’t hit the streets to disturb public peace. We were at home, standing quietly wearing free Gregory Afoko shirts with plague cards appealing for help. We felt there was no need for chanting, the inscriptions said everything,” Cynthia Afoko added.
“The person was kept in custody the entire time he was supposed to be on bail, and all of a sudden, the person’s bail was rescinded by another court. He was found not guilty by a jury, and the Attorney General declared a “mistrial” and ordered a new trial which is ongoing. This is a mockery of our legal system and a worry for us as a family,” she said.
Background
The case against Gregory Afoko is that the deceased (Mahama Adams), the former Upper East Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), informed several persons at the crime scene, on the way to the hospital, and in the hospital that the accused person (Gregory Afoko) was responsible for his injuries which later led to his death, which the aggrieved Gregory Afoko family believes is not true.
The accused person (Gregory Afoko) was granted GH¢500,000 bail on March 14, 2019, by the Criminal Division “Five” of the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice George Boadi, but the bail was rescinded by Justice Merley Afua Wood on Monday, July 15, 2019.
Source: Oyerepafmonline.com/Edmond Kwaching Agwaazeh, Upper East Regional Correspondent
