The General Jurisdiction Division Two of the High Court in Accra has adjourned the hearing of an ex parte application for a writ of habeas corpus seeking the production of Alhaji Seidu Abagre, who was allegedly arrested by the Ghana Armed Forces and detained by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB).
Alhaji Seidu Abagre was selected by the Nayiri, overlord of the Mamprugu Kingdom, as Chief of Bawku. His status, however, was subsequently repudiated by a mediation report issued under the auspices of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, which recognised Zugran Abugrago Azoka II as the legitimate Bawku Naba.
The report directed that Alhaji Abagre be removed from Bawku and reassigned by the Nayiri, or alternatively, remain in Bawku as an ordinary citizen.
Despite this, Alhaji Abagre was allegedly arrested on December 24, 2025, and has remained in custody since then without access to legal counsel and with only limited access to a family member, his first son.
The application, filed on January 5, 2026, seeks an order compelling the security agencies to produce the applicant before the court and justify his continued detention, failing which he should be released.
According to the affidavit in support, the applicant was forcibly arrested on December 24, 2025, by personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces at his residence in Bawku in the Upper East Region.
He was allegedly taken to an undisclosed location and held incommunicado, without access to his lawyers or close family members.
The applicant’s family maintains that all efforts to ascertain his whereabouts and secure legal representation for him proved futile.
The affidavit further alleges that on December 26, 2025, officers of the National Intelligence Bureau obtained an ex parte order from the Adentan Circuit Court purportedly authorising his continued detention.
The order was allegedly secured in the absence of the applicant, his lawyers, and his family, and without producing him before the court.
Lawyers for the applicant, led by Martin Kpebu, argue that the procedure adopted by the security agencies violates Article 14 of the 1992 Constitution, which requires that a person arrested or detained be brought before a court within forty-eight hours.
They contend that the failure to produce the applicant before the Adentan Circuit Court rendered the purported detention order null and of no legal effect.
The application also alleges that the applicant’s prolonged detention said to be about two weeks without access to counsel or adequate family contact amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment and mental torture, contrary to Article 15 of the Constitution.
Although the applicant’s first son, Baba Seidu Abdulai, was at one point granted limited access to him, the family insists that such access was woefully inadequate and could not substitute for legal consultation.
When the matter was called, the presiding judge, Her Ladyship Halima El-Alawa Abdul Bassit, explained that she had only recently been alerted to the application due to additional judicial duties and required time to properly study its contents.
While raising no objection to the adjournment, counsel for the applicant, Martin Kpebu, urged the court to be guided by the Supreme Court’s decision in Kpebu (No. 4) v Attorney-General (No. 4), which held that the constitutional forty-eight-hour rule must be strictly enforced, including on weekends and public holidays, where personal liberty is at stake.
The court subsequently adjourned the matter to Monday and directed that the habeas corpus application be heard at 9:00 a.m.
