General News of Friday, 19 November 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-11-19I never expected it to come this far – Sosu on his skirmish with Ghana Police Service
Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Lawyer Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu
Police secure court summons against Madina MP
Francis-Xavier Sosu fails to make court appearance on two occasions
MP sues police for allegedly breaching his rights
Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, Xavier-Francis Sosu hopes the seemingly unending feud between him and the Ghana Police Service
Read full articleends soon.
The MP who has been charged for allegedly blocking a road during a demonstration and causing destruction to public property has failed to appear in court on two occasions.
Having sued the police in return for allegedly trampling on his right to protest, Xavier Sosu says the back and forth with the Ghana Police Service is affecting his work as a legislator.
“I think it’s a bit disruptive, and I’m hoping that sooner or later we will go past that. I never expected it to come this far, and I don’t really expect it to get to some level.”
“I hope that we will be able to resolve the matter going forward,” he stated.
According to the MP he does not believe in “simply turning yourself into the police if you haven’t committed any offense. I believe I followed due process with regard to the demonstration.”
“There was no complaint of any sort. The issues started escalating when everything was over, and I was about to go to Parliament and the Police tried arresting me. That was when the hiccup started. I cited them for contempt of Parliament, and out of anger they decided to retaliate by coming to church to get me arrested,” he said.
“It is for this reason I resorted to the Human Rights Court to protect my fundamental human rights. I am hoping that it will resolve the issue,” he added.
Xavier Sosu led his constituents to demonstrate against bad roads in his constituency on October 25, 2021.
According to the police, the demonstration at some point resulted in some criminal acts.
The police have since made two attempts to arrest the MP who has also reported the police to the speaker of parliament saying they manhandled him in his course to execute his duty as an MP.
The MP failed to honour a court summons on November 8, which was secured against him by the police.
He subsequently failed to honour a second schedule of the case.
However, the speaker of parliament had on both occasions written to the court informing it that the MP was outside the country attending to parliamentary duties.
