<<Print>>

AN AUDIO tape intercepted by the DAILY HERITAGE has revealed verbal threat from Francis Agyare to commit suicide if the Government of Ghana refused to pay all his claims after winning GH�200,000.00 damages for unlawful detention for fourteen years without trial. The 32-minutes tape conversation between him and his lawyer also revealed that since government has abandoned him, he intends to kill himself because of economic hardship and the fact that society is looking down upon him. It would be recalled that Mr. Agyare, 46, won GH�200,000.00 damages against the state over unlawfully detention for 14 years and six months without trial. Mr Agyare was arrested on January 5, 1994 at James Town and was kept on remand at the Nsawam prisons for such a long period without trial, but was later released in 2008 by Justice Quartey under the justice for all programme. But, after being awarded the damages in March this year, Mr Agyare is yet to be paid his money seven months after judgement was given. �If they can�t pay the money, I will take my life for them to take the money. I am prepared to go to radio stations to announce to them they should take the money and I will kill myself,� he sadly said. On the tape, Mr. Agyare revealed that since he came out of prison, he had lost the respect in society and that everybody looks down on him because he was accused wrongly of a murder he knew nothing about. �Any moment from now I don�t know what I will do to myself. I think I will go from radio station to radio station and after the announcement will walk to the independence square to hang myself if the government refuses to pay my claims. �I am suffering because I don�t have a place to sleep or anything to eat, I am dying slowly, they have cheated me a lot,� he stated. In an interview with the DAILY HERITAGE, Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, counsel for Mr Agyare said his client is depressed and psychologically traumatized because government is delaying in the payment of his claims. He said, Mr Agyare also thinks he (the lawyer) has received the money and is not paying him. Lawyer Sosu felt disappointed about the pronouncement of his client and stated that the Ministry of Finance is currently working on the issue. He said, �I wanted to hire a room for him for free but because I asked him to go and show me the room before I give him the money, I was told plainly that I should take my money.�