Betty Mould a square peg in a round hole?
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A LEADING ATTORNEY, Joe Aboagye Debrah has resigned from the General Legal Council (GLC) due to frustrations from both the Attorney General and the GLC from taking both criminal and professional sanctions against lawyers who have been accused of forgery.
The two lawyers, Ekow Amua Sekyi and Kwame Owusu Asamani allegedly forged judicial documents and defrauded a mining company of over USD 850,000.
Lawyer Joe Debrahís resignation, which were in two letters dated Thursday September 17, this year, were addressed to the Chief Justice, Her Lordship Justice Georgina Wood, who is the Chairperson of GLC and the Attorney-General, Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, who is also a member of GLC.
The resignation took effect from Friday September 18th 2009, minutes after he experienced the frustrations of Justice Dzaketse angst over the AGís decision to send officials from her office to come and announce to the court that the two lawyers, who had been expected in court for the third time last Friday, were not going to make it.
He moaned to The Chronicle the lackadaisical attitude of the Legal Council to pursue a petition filed against the two lawyers on September 10, last year. It's about a year now since the petition was filed to the Legal Council, but the council has failed to demand the defense of both lawyers. he reiterated.
His letter to the Chief Justice read: I am compelled to resign my position as contemporary events surrounding a petition filed by my clients against lawyers Ekow Amua-Sekyi and J.K. Owusu Asamani with the GLC since September 10, 2008, and a criminal matter currently pending in the Circuit Court, Accra, which conflicts with all my principles as a lawyer and to disable me from continuing in the said position.
Concerning the letter to Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu, the lawyer did not mince words in venting his anger on her reluctance to pursue the criminal aspect of the case.
His letter read: I have been compelled to take this decision primarily in protest against expressed unwillingness to secure the legitimate constitutional interests of my clients in the Republic vrs. J.K Owusu Asamani & Ekow Amua-Sekyi.
Your actions in the said matter fly in the face of all the principles that you stand for and have taught me to live with. Sadly, they also fly in the face of the Presidentís expressed political mantra of allowing the law to work for all, poor or rich, in the desired objective of a change for a better Ghana.î
Lawyer Debrah was thankful for being given the opportunity to contribute his quota to the development of the legal profession in Ghana.
In his petition to GLC, Mr. Samuel Gordon Etroo, a businessman at Tarkwa, said Mr. Amua-Sekyi was his lawyer and was later made a director in his company, which acquired a mining concession at Esaase in the Amansie West District in June 2005. Sometime in April 2006, a Canadian mining firm, known as Keegan Resources expressed interest in the said concession and my company granted them a license to undertake some due diligence on the site.
However, in May 2008, Kwame Opoku called the company, demanding the refund of his money, although to the best of his knowledge Kwame had already sent them to court and the matter was even pending at the Court of Appeal, while he had been paid USD230,000.
To his surprise, Mr. Opoku expressed shock over claims that he had taken the matter to court and insisted that he has not instructed any lawyer to take the case to court, and maintained that he had never received any money from Mr. Etroo, apart from an amount of USD30, 000 paid to him by Lawyer Amua-Sekyi, but the same Amua-Sekyi came back later to collect the whole amount from him. Kwame Opoku said that lawyer Amua-Sekyi claimed my company was demanding the USD30,000 back, and that Kwame Opoku should rather go and take the concession in lieu of payment.
Kwame Opoku, therefore, returned the money to Amua-Sekyi. We note with deep regret that even the USD30, 000 never reached us, Mr. Etroo uttered.
He said, one lawyer Asamani, presented himself as the lawyer for a company called Axex Limited and claimed that Axex Limited had taken over his company's interest in the concession because Mr. Opoku took some money from them and that Axex Limited had secured a judgment from the High Court to that effect, as a result it has taken the judgment to Keegan and taken USD850,000 to extinguish his (Mr. Etroo) rights to the concession.
Mr. Etroo said the report to the General Legal Council was because his lawyer SCANNED his personal signature on the document and sent it to Keegan Resources as completed.
The Minerals Commission was, therefore, conned with this fraudulent document and proceeded to grant a mining license to Keegan Resources, based on a document I had never seen nor executed, nor been informed about, but which purports to bear my signature. He continued that they were shocked, saddened and very angry that all these stories were part of an elaborate scheme of fraud, planned and executed to perfection by two qualified lawyers to defraud him and illegally profit from such an unlawful act.
He said though they recognized their rights to seek redress under law, professional sanctions for their actions could only emanate from the GLC. Mr. Etroo cautioned that the lawyers pose a serious threat to the integrity of the whole legal professionSource: George Kyei Frimpong - Ghanaian Chronicle
The two lawyers, Ekow Amua Sekyi and Kwame Owusu Asamani allegedly forged judicial documents and defrauded a mining company of over USD 850,000.
Lawyer Joe Debrahís resignation, which were in two letters dated Thursday September 17, this year, were addressed to the Chief Justice, Her Lordship Justice Georgina Wood, who is the Chairperson of GLC and the Attorney-General, Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, who is also a member of GLC.
The resignation took effect from Friday September 18th 2009, minutes after he experienced the frustrations of Justice Dzaketse angst over the AGís decision to send officials from her office to come and announce to the court that the two lawyers, who had been expected in court for the third time last Friday, were not going to make it.
He moaned to The Chronicle the lackadaisical attitude of the Legal Council to pursue a petition filed against the two lawyers on September 10, last year. It's about a year now since the petition was filed to the Legal Council, but the council has failed to demand the defense of both lawyers. he reiterated.
His letter to the Chief Justice read: I am compelled to resign my position as contemporary events surrounding a petition filed by my clients against lawyers Ekow Amua-Sekyi and J.K. Owusu Asamani with the GLC since September 10, 2008, and a criminal matter currently pending in the Circuit Court, Accra, which conflicts with all my principles as a lawyer and to disable me from continuing in the said position.
Concerning the letter to Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu, the lawyer did not mince words in venting his anger on her reluctance to pursue the criminal aspect of the case.
His letter read: I have been compelled to take this decision primarily in protest against expressed unwillingness to secure the legitimate constitutional interests of my clients in the Republic vrs. J.K Owusu Asamani & Ekow Amua-Sekyi.
Your actions in the said matter fly in the face of all the principles that you stand for and have taught me to live with. Sadly, they also fly in the face of the Presidentís expressed political mantra of allowing the law to work for all, poor or rich, in the desired objective of a change for a better Ghana.î
Lawyer Debrah was thankful for being given the opportunity to contribute his quota to the development of the legal profession in Ghana.
In his petition to GLC, Mr. Samuel Gordon Etroo, a businessman at Tarkwa, said Mr. Amua-Sekyi was his lawyer and was later made a director in his company, which acquired a mining concession at Esaase in the Amansie West District in June 2005. Sometime in April 2006, a Canadian mining firm, known as Keegan Resources expressed interest in the said concession and my company granted them a license to undertake some due diligence on the site.
However, in May 2008, Kwame Opoku called the company, demanding the refund of his money, although to the best of his knowledge Kwame had already sent them to court and the matter was even pending at the Court of Appeal, while he had been paid USD230,000.
To his surprise, Mr. Opoku expressed shock over claims that he had taken the matter to court and insisted that he has not instructed any lawyer to take the case to court, and maintained that he had never received any money from Mr. Etroo, apart from an amount of USD30, 000 paid to him by Lawyer Amua-Sekyi, but the same Amua-Sekyi came back later to collect the whole amount from him. Kwame Opoku said that lawyer Amua-Sekyi claimed my company was demanding the USD30,000 back, and that Kwame Opoku should rather go and take the concession in lieu of payment.
Kwame Opoku, therefore, returned the money to Amua-Sekyi. We note with deep regret that even the USD30, 000 never reached us, Mr. Etroo uttered.
He said, one lawyer Asamani, presented himself as the lawyer for a company called Axex Limited and claimed that Axex Limited had taken over his company's interest in the concession because Mr. Opoku took some money from them and that Axex Limited had secured a judgment from the High Court to that effect, as a result it has taken the judgment to Keegan and taken USD850,000 to extinguish his (Mr. Etroo) rights to the concession.
Mr. Etroo said the report to the General Legal Council was because his lawyer SCANNED his personal signature on the document and sent it to Keegan Resources as completed.
The Minerals Commission was, therefore, conned with this fraudulent document and proceeded to grant a mining license to Keegan Resources, based on a document I had never seen nor executed, nor been informed about, but which purports to bear my signature. He continued that they were shocked, saddened and very angry that all these stories were part of an elaborate scheme of fraud, planned and executed to perfection by two qualified lawyers to defraud him and illegally profit from such an unlawful act.
He said though they recognized their rights to seek redress under law, professional sanctions for their actions could only emanate from the GLC. Mr. Etroo cautioned that the lawyers pose a serious threat to the integrity of the whole legal professionSource: George Kyei Frimpong - Ghanaian Chronicle
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