District Chief Executive (DCE) for Atiwa East in the Eastern Region, Ernest Owusu Ntim, and others, have been convicted for contempt of court by the Koforidua High Court. Following the conviction, the court today, 15 December 2025, sentenced the DCE to 8 days in prison.
According to the application for contempt of court filed in court, which Asaase News had sighted, in May 2025, the DCE and the other persons cited were respondents in a motion for injunction pending before the High Court in Koforidua, which has been filed and served on them.
The injunction sought to restrain the DCE and the other persons from entering a land, the subject matter of a suit pending before the court, grading or removing the soil on the land, digging holes or pits or creating ditches on the land, carrying out any form of mining activities on the land, and dealing with the land in any manner whatsoever and or howsoever.
The DCE, his brothers, and another person, all of whom are allegedly described by the application as illegal miners within the Atiwa East District and named in the application, are said to have re-entered the land and are actively carrying out galamsey in spite of the injunction.
According to the court papers, Joseph Ntim, the DCE’s brother when confronted on the galamsey site on the 2nd day of May 2025, retorted that: “his brother (now DCE) had been nominated for the position of DCE for Atiwa East, and on his confirmation, no one, not even the courts could interfere with their activities, and further that even judges will become the subordinates of the DCE”.
The grounds of the application, as contained in the affidavit filed in support of the contempt of court application, include the assertion that the DCE and the other respondents, despite the injunction being sub judice, and they knowing it, are doing exactly what the injunction motion seeks to restrain them from doing.
The Applicant views the conduct of the DCE and the others as wilful and voluntary, and that constitutes contempt of court. The Applicant further views the conduct of the DCE and the others as a deliberate interference with the administration of justice calculated to obstruct the work of the Court and lower its authority.
According to the Applicant, on the 2nd day of May 2025, when the matter was still sub judice, its Managing Director complained to the Eastern South Regional Police Headquarters of the Ghana Police Service at Kyebi, upon which the Regional Command effected arrests at the galamsey site.
The application states that after the arrest, the DCE confronted the Applicant that the people who were arrested by the Police are his workers, and that if he did not withdraw the complaint and he is later confirmed as DCE, he would change his ownership of the land and make it his own.
The DCE is also alleged to have confirmed what his brother stated: that even the judges would become his subordinates upon his confirmation as DCE, and therefore, it was in the applicant’s interest to allow him to mine quietly. Parts of the affidavit read.
The Court first heard the contempt of court application on 28 May 2025 to determine the fate of the DCE and the other respondents in the contempt suit.
At the sitting of the court on 15 December 2025, the presiding judge ruled that he found the actions and inactions of the DCE and the other respondents unacceptable and a complete disregard for the power of the court.
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