High Court Judge flees Bolgatanga over alleged threat on his life

Following some death threats and attacks at his residence, the acting Supervising High Court Judge at Bolgatanga, Justice Alexander Graham has fled and vacated his post.

This comes a week after he convicted two persons for contempt.

The decision to abandon his duty post is as a result of a number of death threats and an attack at his residence.

It is however unclear when Justice Alexander Graham will return to adjudicate cases at the High Court Two in Bolgatanga.

Promotion 

Justice Graham who was the Circuit Court judge in Bolgatanga was among 10 new judges who were promoted to the High Court and sworn into office in July 2022.

He took charge of the High Court Two which had been closed for sometime due to the unavailability of a judge.

Death threats

Since starting work at the High Court, Graphic Online understands he continuously received death threats in the form of phone calls and text messages from unknown persons.

Sources at the court have told Graphic Online that some faceless individuals sometimes call the Presiding Judge to warn him to be careful about some of the cases pending at the High Court Two.

According to one of the sources, Justice Graham often received calls from some persons warning him to be careful about mining and chieftaincy cases pending at the court.

The source said “one time, someone called him and threatened to take his life if he does not get a favourable outcome from his case, which was pending at the court.

Shooting in the night

Information gathered indicates that some weeks ago, there was sporadic shooting in the night around Justice Graham’s residence by some unknown assailants ostensibly to put fear in him.

The police patrol team was quickly alerted and when they rushed to the area, the assailants had bolted.

Last Tuesday, March 13, 2023 at night, some persons besieged Justice Graham’s residence and attacked him by pelting stones at the residence.

Sensing danger, Justice Graham left the region the next day (Wednesday morning) around 10:30 am to Accra for safety.

Although a number of cases had been earmarked for hearing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the clients and lawyers were left with disappointment due to Justice Graham’s absence.

Contempt case

On Friday, March 10, 2023, two persons were convicted by the High Court Two for attempting to influence the trial judge.

The two, Chief of Baare, Naab Nyakora Mantii and Richard Sunday Yinbil were convicted for contempt on their own pleas of guilty.

They were charged for contempt when they earlier told Justice Graham in his chamber that they were sent a chief in their area to invite him to his palace to discuss some mining related cases before the court.

Justice Graham who found the action by the two persons contemptuous, convicted them for contempt and asked them to sign six months bond to be of good behaviour.