Asabee Wants BNI Boss Imprisoned

The former Minister of Information and National Orientation, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, believes his right to freedom of movement has been so bruised by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) that he wants Yaw Donkor, Director of BNI to be incarcerated. In a law suit filed on behalf of the former Minister by Nene Amegatcher, �Asabee� is praying the court to put behind bars the BNI boss and two other officials for �disregarding the pending application served on the BNI and interfering with the administration of justice.� By incarcerating Josephine Gandayiri and Stephen Abrokwah both operatives of the BNI together with their boss Yaw Donkor, Asamoah-Boateng believes would be �in the interest of justice and the promotion of the rule of law, peace and the prevention of �impunity� and the smooth administration of justice.� The former MP for Mfantsiman West, is therefore praying the court to sanction the Contemnors/Respondent in order to �send a clear message once and for all for like minded persons that in a country that prides itself as the bastion of the Rule of Law and an example to the African countries, power is to be exercised within constitutional and statutory limits and that no one had a blank cheques to do as he pleases; a recipe for chaos and lawlessness.� It would be recalled that the former Minister together with his wife Zuleika Asamoah-Boateng and their two kids were in June accosted and prevented from traveling abroad by �unidentified� BNI officials at the boarding gate at the Kotoka International Airport. Media interviews granted by �Asabee� after being stopped from traveling suggested that the supposed BNI operatives failed to identify themselves and could not produce any warrant to justify their actions. According to him, the operatives said they were only following �orders from above�. In the ensuring melee, his wife, Zuleika had to forcibly retrieve her husband�s passport from them which they had earlier on seized. What �Asabee� seems not to comprehend is that at the time they were prevented form traveling, he �had no prior invitation from any security agency or institution of government. As a former legislator, �Asabee� on July 13, 2009 caused his Solicitor to file an Application against the BNI on behalf of his family a Motion on Notice for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights. Paragraph 24(c) of the said Affidavit in support of the Motion states: �An order of Injunction Restraining respondent and for that matter any authority from interfering with the applicant�s movement in and outside Ghana without recourse to due process as enshrined in the Constitution and laws of the lands.� The contemnors were duly served and on July 23, 2009 were presented in court the Attorney-General. Whilst the motion is still pending, �Asabee� to decide to cool off in Europe with his family and this time again were accosted by two BNI operatives and forcibly removed from the plane by the 2nd and 3rd contemnors allegedly on the instructions of the 1st contemnor Yaw Donkor. In the understanding of Counsel for the Asamoah-Boateng family and �Asabee� himself, the second prevention by the BNI is in contempt with the earlier court application which sought the court to restrain the BNI from further preventing him and his family from traveling.