An Accra High Court has cited Nowak Developments Ltd and its Managing Director, Oko Nortei Omaboe, for contempt of court.

The company and its Chief Executive have been found contemptuous of a court case involving them and Life Group of Companies Ltd over a parcel of land situated at Airport Commercial Centre in Accra.

According to a writ establishing the ruling of the court, an injunction had been placed on Nowak Developments Ltd and its boss who are the respondents in the case not to encroach on the land but they exploited the court's decision to operate without full determination of the case.

In view of this, the court finds the respondents to have acted in a way that brings the judicial system into disrepute.

“The Respondents, by their own showing, had acted in a way that will render an order of injunction nugatory; this had the effect of undermining the court’s authority and created an unfair disadvantage of the other party. The injunction request was to restrain them from going onto the land and dealing with the land. They used self-help and determined the Applicant’s request for the court – this must be deprecated, which I do. This should ordinarily attract the pain of punishment.

“The reliefs sought in the substantive suit and the nature of the injunction request make the impugned acts of the Respondents reprehensible. It suggests a deliberate attempt to circumvent the authority of the court and to render the court’s decision redundant. It is tantamount to trampling on the court and riding roughshod on it, in a pending manner. This is what a court must ward off”, the High Court ruling emphasized.

The court further stated that respondents acting in contempt of the court “come to court and offer rather absurd reasoning and lame excuses” and maintained that verdict is “to ensure the sanctity of judicial administration and to proscribe the mockery of the judicial system”.

Nowak Developments Ltd and Oko Nortei Omaboe have been fined GHC 50,000 and failure to pay this amount will result in imprisonment.

“I sentence the Respondents jointly and severally, to a fine for GHS 50,000.0 or in default 5 weeks imprisonment. In evaluation the elements of sentencing, I have considered mitigating and aggravating factors. The fact that the Respondents operate an ongoing business is mitigating. However, their Consent dealings is aggravating; given the manner they strayed and “crossed the line” onto the turf of contempt”, the Judge pronounced.

The court has further “set aside any use of the consent granted by the Lands Commission and suspend its effect, until the final determination of the matter”.

Read full writ below: