It appears the ace undercover investigator, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, is playing hard to catch, compelling a lawyer for one of the judges implicated in the judicial scandal to file a motion for substituted service.
Court bailiffs have not been successful in serving Anas and his company, Tiger Eye P I, with court summons contesting the content of the video, plans to air it, the immunity granted him from prosecution and an application seeking his incarceration.
Counsel for Justice Paul Uuter Dery, one of the High Court judges caught on video allegedly receiving bribe, had, within a week, filed three separate applications all aimed at stopping Anas from airing a video showing his client and 33 other judges and magistrates taking bribes to compromise cases before them.
Pending before the Fast Track High Court are a suit challenging the legality of the video which captured Justice Dery taking bribe, an application for injunction to restrain Anas from showing the said video and a motion for contempt urging the court to imprison Anas and four others for leaking portions of the controversial video to the media.
A fourth application is directed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its directors from releasing the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) for the screening of the video on September 22 and 23, 2015.
Unsuccessful service
Following the difficulty in locating Anas’s company to serve it the court documents to pave the way for the hearing of the pending applications, a lawyer for Justice Dery, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo of Addo and Addo, a law firm, has filed an ex-parte motion praying the court to grant a request for substituted service of the writ of summons, the statement of claim, the application for interlocutory injunction and the hearing notice on Tiger Eye PI.
Nii Addo is expected to move the application today, September 22, 2015.
Affidavit in support
An affidavit in support of the motion deposed to by Justice Dery said he caused a writ of summons and a statement of claim to be issued against Tiger Eye PI, the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General on September 14, 2015.
It said a motion for interlocutory injunction against Tiger Eye PI was also filed on September 14, 2015.
According to the affidavit, the defendants, except Tiger Eye PI, were served with the necessary court documents on the same day of filing but attempts made by bailiffs to serve Tiger Eye PI with the said writ of summons, the statement of claim and the interlocutory injunction had proved futile.
It said “the law provides that where several attempts to serve a document personally have been unsuccessful and further attempt will cause undue delay, the honourable court may make an order for substituted service of that document”.
The applicant intends to serve the defendant through its postal address and on notice boards at the High Court.
Contempt application
In the contempt application, Justice Dery wants Anas and four others imprisoned for contempt of court.
The four are the acting Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Mr Samuel Frimpong; the Deputy Editor of the New Crusading Guide, Mr Ernest Addo; the Chief Executive Officer of Starr FM, Mr Nathan Kwabena Anokye Adisi, and the Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa, Mr Sulemana Braimah.
He has accused the five of allegedly leaking a video of him (Justice Dery) allegedly taking bribe.
The applicant and 33 other judges are alleged to have taken bribes to influence cases pending before them.
Anas uncovered the alleged rot in a two-year investigation which also caught more than 100 members of staff of the Judicial Service, policemen and prosecutors either extorting and/or taking bribes.
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