Stephen Kwabena Effah
June 8, 2013
A Magistrate Court
in Accra yesterday ordered the extradition of popular hip-life musician, Deeba
Acheampong, to the United Kingdom where is alleged to have raped his eight-year
old step daughter.
The Interior
Ministry is expected to prepare the extradition order as per yesterday’s ruling
for the court’s approval before Deeba, who has a 15-day window of appeal, is
extradited to the UK.
His lawyer,
Augustine Obour told journalists after proceedings that he would apply for a
copy of the ruling by the Magistrate, Aboagye Tandoh, and consider the next
line of action to take in the case.
The Ghanaian
fugitive has been fighting extradition since his arrest in January this year at
the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra during an undercover operation for
alleged rape and assault of his step daughters.
The court said
yesterday that it found as a fact that prima facie case has been made against
Deeba on the five counts of defilement under Ghanaian laws ( under UK laws, the
offence fall under rape) which was preferred against him for the purposes of
the extradition proceedings.
“Having considered
the totality of the evidence, I am of a candid opinion that a prima facie case
has been made against him on the charges of defilement,” Mr. Tandoh said and
remanded Deeba to Prison custody pending this extradition.
The court,
however, discharged Deeba on the one count of assault since it found no
sufficient basis for that charge under Ghanaian laws to meet the extradition
law.
This means that
Deeba upon his extradition would be tried only on the charges of rape.
According to the
court, the charge of rape as Deeba was charged under the UK laws and defilement
under Ghanaian laws is within the scope under the Extradition Act 22, 1960,
indicating that the charge is not politically motivated.
“I find as a fact
per a summary of evidence before me that the charges are not politically
motivated,” Mr. Tandoh said.
The Magistrate
rejected the defence team’s claim that Ghana and UK has no extradition agreement,
noting that Ghana upon attainment of independence from the British rule
inherited an extradition agreement between the Britain and UK.
In December 2012,
INTERPOL Accra received a request of arrest warrant from its counterpart in
London to the effect that between 2005 and 2008, while living in the UK, the
accused person had a relationship with a woman who already had two daughters,
aged eight and six, from her previous relationship.
Subsequently Deeba
and the woman had two children from their union.
Initially, they
lived separately but when the woman went on night shift Deeba took care of the
home and cared for the children.
That, prosecutors
said, continued until September 2008 when Deeba returned to Ghana to pursue his
musical career.
But two weeks
after his departure from the UK, Deeba’s step-daughter told her mother that her
Deeba had sexual intercourse with her on several occasions whenever her mother
went to work at night.
According to prosecutors,
on those occasions, Deeba invited the girl into the bedroom to watch
pornographic films with him, after which he would lay her on the bed, kiss her
mouth, apply baby oil on his penis and have sex with her.
The little girl
also alleged that the accused person sometimes had anal sex with her and that
after each act he put a sanitary towel in her panties to avoid evidence of
bloodstains and also hid his stained bed sheet.
She further
alleged that Deeba threatened to beat her if she disclosed the acts to anyone.
Deeba, prosecutors
said, assaulted the little girl’s sister between June 1 and 4, 2008 when she
attempted to satisfy her inquisitiveness about what was happening to her sister
and that led to a cut on the back of the girl’s head.
A medical
examination on the little girl by a forensic physician, Dr. Ainsley Kassie,
revealed extensive damage to her hymen as a result of vaginal penetration.
Deeba was said to
have denied the offence when he was confronted by his fiancée, who later lodged
a complaint with the Police, following which a warrant was issued by the
Northampton-Shire Magistrate’s Court for the arrest of the accused person.
Deeba was arrested
at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra during an undercover operation.
He has, however,
denied the offence in his caution statement to the Police
The civil suit initiated by the State to retrieve the GH¢ 51.2 million paid to businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome bounced back at the Accra Commercial Court yesterday, after almost a year of suspension.
An attempt by a-29-year old nursing mother to smuggle quantities of dried leaves suspected to be Indian hemp to an accused person being tried for alleged narcotic offence was yesterday afternoon foiled by security personnel on duty at the Cocoa Affairs Courts in Accra.
Lawyers for
businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome, yesterday tendered in evidence, three letters
written by former Attorney General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu and her Deputy, Ebo
Barton-Odro, to the Ministry of Finance justifying claims made by Mr. Woyome
against the State.
The Supreme Court yesterday
laid to rest, one of the country’s questionable judgement debts when it ordered
Spanish energy firm, Isofoton SA, to refund to the Government of Ghana, some
US$325,472 and all other monies paid to it as judgement debt in March 2011. 
The Accra
Commercial Court has ordered former Attorney General Joe Ghartey, to appear
before it next Monday to give evidence in the case in which six Ghanaians are
challenging the government’s sale of 70 per cent shares in Ghana Telecom to
Vodafone.
It, however,
declined to order businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome to refund the GHC 51 million
paid to him by the State in judgement debt on jurisdictional grounds, since the
issues relating to Mr. Woyome are matters within the purview of the High Court
trying the case.
Justin Katinan
Kone, Spokesman for former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, has described
attempts by the Ivorian Government to have him extradited to that country to
face robbery charges as politically motivated. 
A Magistrate Court
in Accra yesterday ordered the extradition of popular hip-life musician, Deeba
Acheampong, to the United Kingdom where is alleged to have raped his eight-year
old step daughter.