The most senior
judge in the Upper East Region, Justice Jacob B. Boon, has recused himself from
a case before him at the Bolgatanga High Court Room 1, following a Starr News
undercover investigation on public access to equal justice under the law.
He recused himself from the case after he was officially notified of an
investigative findings on Monday December 17, this year.
Starr News undertook series of
undercover investigations recently, choosing the Bolgatanga High Court Room 1
as one of the tasks and focusing its mission on a case involving two mining
firms operating in the Talensi District of Ghana— the Cassius Mining Limited
(from Australia) and the Shaanxi Mining Company Limited (from China)— at the
court.
Cassius had complained that neighbouring Shaanxi had deliberately entered its
licence area, sneaked underground and carted away tonnes of ore extracted from
its goldfield. A rift that came up later between the two companies over the
alleged trespass and raid became a dispute only a law court could settle.
So, Cassius took the matter to court in August, this year, where it sought an
order directing Shaanxi to pay general damages for trespass. The plaintiff
(Cassius) also prayed the court to grant interlocutory injunction on the
operations of the defendant (Shaanxi) outside the licence areas of its hosts
(Yenyeya and Pubootaaba mining groups). And it, among other requests, pleaded
with the court to restrain the defendant from unlawfully interfering in the
area where the plaintiff (Cassius) had been licensed to undertake prospecting.
Whilst the hearing of the case was underway, Starr News did weeks of undercover
monitoring of developments in the background on the issue. Two weeks to the
ruling on the case, Starr News sighted officials of the Shaanxi Mining Company
Ltd twice on separate days— at noon and at night in November, 2018— at the
official residence of Justice Jacob B. Boon— the judge in charge of the case.
Pressure and Bribe to Suppress Investigative Findings
Two
days before the judge would pass a ruling on the case, Starr News established
contact with the officials of Shaanxi for comments on their secret visits to
the house of the region’s Supervising High Court Judge and the meetings they
held with him.
Initially, they denied paying visits to the judge. But, after the irrefutable
findings were laid bare to them, Starr News received telephone calls from some
powerful figures, who are linked to Shaanxi, pleading strongly on behalf of the
judge and the Chinese-owned company to not publish the findings.
The names of the influential figures and the ‘inflammable’ comments they made
are being withheld for now.
Subsequently, Shaanxi officials brought a bribe of GH¢5,000 cash in a brown
envelope and a brand new motorbike worth about GH¢5,000 to the investigative
journalist for him to kill the story — a demand completely at odds with the
ideals of Journalism.
“We know you are using a very wretched motorbike. This is just the beginning
for you,” one of the officials told Starr News after the motorbike was
delivered. “We have held a meeting to see how every month you’ll get something
from us. If you publish it, it would affect many people including the judge who
is about to retire.”
“Journalists,” says Article 3 of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Code
of Ethics, “should not accept bribe or any form of inducement to influence the
performance of his or her professional duties.”
Strong threats trailed the telephone calls in the form of caution to the
reporter from known and unknown sources to have the findings quashed— a push
which flies in the face of Article 8 of the GJA Code of Ethics: “Under no
circumstances should news or a publication be suppressed unless it borders on
national security or is in public interest to do so.”
A new motorbike and a cash of Gh¢5,000 given to Starr News investigative
journalist by Shaanxi officials to hide the secret visits to the judge from the
public
Court’s Ruling Favours Shaanxi Mining Company Ltd
On Monday November 26, 2018, the judge, after presiding over arguments
sequentially waged by a team of lawyers from each side against the other, and
following weeks of studying the exhibits tendered before him by Cassius to
buttress its claims and those tendered by Shaanxi in defence, ruled on the
case.
The ruling favoured the Shaanxi Mining Company Ltd as the judge did not grant
the interlocutory injunction the Cassius Mining Limited sought.
Officials of the Cassius Mining Ltd— a company which, in recognition of the “highest
number of employment” it has given to “the Ghanaian community” so far, won the
Employer of the Year Award at the 2018 MOBEK Business Excellence Awards
Ceremony held recently in the country— looked crestfallen after the ruling.
Whilst the Shaanxi side was jubilant after the ruling, the disappointed-looking
staff and business associates of the Cassius Mining Ltd stood outside the court
premises, staring in reflective silence at the motto of the Judicial Service of
Ghana inscribed on a nearby signpost: “Justice and Fair Play”.
Starr News is sincerely unable to establish whatever took place indoors as the
Shaanxi officials visited the judge privately at least twice within two weeks
before the ruling. Starr News also can neither conclude nor suggest that Shaanxi’s
multiple visits to the judge’s house influenced the outcome of the case even
though Shaanxi’s attempts to silence Starr News with bribe after the ‘secret
visits’ and the pleas which came from some public figures to cover Shaanxi and
the judge may raise a lot of questions.
But
it is public knowledge that Ghana’s Code of Conduct for Judges and Magistrates,
especially under Rule 2 and Rule 5, stresses the need for judges to avoid
whatsoever might cause their impartiality to be reasonably questioned or erode
public confidence in the judiciary.
This, perhaps, is the reason one of the judges in the Upper East region (name
of the celebrated judge to be revealed in a future publication) is said to have
persistently warned and reminded the public, especially those who have cases in
his court, to stay away from his residence or he would have such unwelcome
visitors arrested and prosecuted.
It is one of the reasons the loving public often refers to that acclaimed judge
as “The CJ”— not “The Chief Justice” but “The Clean Judge”.
So deep is the unwavering commitment of that humble judge to fairness (no
matter who is involved) and to the rule of law that some observers, who say his
courtroom is not only a delight to attend for the man in the street but also a
“law school” where lawyers cannot risk to attend half-prepared, are reported to
have vowed to “take the bullet for him” any day because, as one of them puts
it, “this anti-corruption judge makes the law look so beautiful, the judiciary
so attractive and democracy so appealing”.
Starr Reporter Proposes Donation of Bribe Gifts to a Worthy Charitable Cause
There are schools where pupils, for lack of furniture, sit hopelessly on the
floor to learn in the Talensi District where the Shaanxi Mining Company Ltd
operates.
The bribe money doled out in a desperate bid to seal a journalist’s mouth from
revealing the secret visits could have provided some furniture for some
floor-seated pupils in the same district where some agitated residents and
small-scale miners say their concerns are never addressed because the Chinese
company, according to them, has ‘bought’ authorities with the same money made
from the gold extracted from their deprived-looking land.
Such
underprivileged schoolchildren need common tables and chairs to spare them the
poor academic performance and the health complications associated with lying on
their bellies to learn for their future.
The underdeveloped region needs more patrol vehicles for the police to
conscientiously fight crime so residents everywhere, irrespective of their
status, can always be sure of safety and security of life and property. The
bribe motorbike, which was given to a journalist in a drastic attempt to shut
him up, is desperately more needed at the Zuarungu Police Station where there
are no patrol vehicles to deal with the recurrent operations of coldblooded
armed robbers terrorising helpless road users on the main roadway between
Zuarungu in the new Bolgatanga East District and Kpatia in the Talensi
District.
Starr News has handed over the bribe items to appropriate hands pending the
outcome of the case. And it is the humble wish of the investigative journalist
that the motorbike would end up at the Zuarungu Police Station to aid patrol
operations and the Gh¢5,000 used to purchase furniture for needy classrooms in
the Talensi District.
Culled from starrfmonline
