The Deputy Attorney-General, Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, has told the High Court in Accra that NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, is a high flight risk and should not be granted bail pending his appeal against a 20-year jail term.
While opposing a bail application pending appeal moved by Wontumi’s lawyer, Samuel Atta Akyea, before Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, the Deputy AG said his owner lawyers have shown he is a flight risk.
Addressing the issue of flight risk, the Deputy AG argued that Wontumi has more motivation to run away than to wait for his appeal.
“It is a fact and the affidavit in support in paragraph 15 has confirmed that the prisoner is standing trial in two other criminal courts, each of those trials staring the prisoner in the face with substantial prison terms which as the law prescribes would be served consecutively instead of concurrently,” Dr. Srem-Sai told the court.
He said that fact alone is sufficient motivation for any prudent prisoner to abscond.
According to him, the argument by the defence that Wontumi’s previous conduct during the trial, where he respected bail conditions, should be used as a yardstick to determine flight risk, is dangerous.
Dr. Srem-Sai further told the court that the prosecution has exhibited a video recording in which Wontumi’s own lawyer was seen on television describing his client as unruly.
“We have also deposed and exhibited a video recording and in that video recording, counsel for the accused was seen on television telling the public that his client, that is the prisoner, is unruly and that but for his exceptional personal management skill, the prisoner at the time of arrest would have run his car over law enforcement agents to avoid arrest,” he submitted.
He stressed that this was not the prosecution’s account of Wontumi’s character, but an account given by his own lawyer.
“This is not the prosecution’s account of the prisoner’s character. It is the prisoner’s own lawyer giving a vivid account of what transpired on the day of arrest,” the Deputy AG said.
He noted that at the time of the said incident, nothing was at stake, as Wontumi had not even been sentenced.
“That was even when nothing was at stake. Not even one day of prison sentence. When the accused person was absolutely innocent and had not been proven guilty. So my lady can imagine today when he is facing a 20-year jail term and has been declared guilty,” Dr. Srem-Sai argued.
He therefore prayed the court to refuse the application for bail pending appeal, on the grounds that no exceptional circumstances have been advanced and that there is more motivation for the prisoner to run away.
The presiding judge, Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay has fixed November 4, 2026, to deliver its ruling on the bail application.
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