The New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Greater Accra Region says it will begin spending nights at the police station if detained nurse Salomey Awity Baffoe is not released within 24 hours.
Regional Chairman Bernard Okoe Boye said the party will petition Chief of Staff Julius Debrah over the nurse’s continued detention, with the Inspector-General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, and National Signals Bureau Director-General, George Atta-Boateng, copied.
Salomey Baffoe, a senior nursing officer, has been remanded in connection with the Ghana Jollof case. She has pleaded not guilty to a charge of abetment of publication of false news.
Dr. Okoe Boye said the party would picket at the police station until she is released to return to her children.
He said the party was prepared to sustain the protest and draw international attention to the case.
Dr. Okoe Boye also challenged the legal basis for Salomey’s continued detention, arguing that principles of natural justice had not been fully applied.
He said the nurse was being held under the justification of ongoing investigations, while the court had so far only taken her plea.
He further questioned the Adenta Circuit Court’s decision to remand her for two weeks, arguing that the defence had not fully presented its case.
Dr. Okoe Boye also cited the legal principle nemo judex in causa sua, which means no one should be a judge in their own case. He used the principle to raise questions about the relationship between the Executive, police and judiciary in the case.
“In this case, to a larger extent, you have a judge sitting in his own case. And only time will tell,” he said.
