High Court adjourns habeas corpus bid for detained Bawku chief nominee

The High Court in Accra has adjourned an ex parte application for a writ of habeas corpus filed to compel the state to produce Alhaji Seidu Abagre, who has allegedly been in security custody since Christmas Eve.

The case, before the General Jurisdiction Division Two, concerns Alhaji Abagre, who was selected by the Nayiri, overlord of Mamprugu, as Chief of Bawku, but later effectively stripped of that status by a mediation report led by Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

The mediation report recognised Zugran Abugrago Azoka II as the lawful Bawku Naba and recommended that Alhaji Abagre either be reassigned by the Nayiri elsewhere or remain in Bawku as an ordinary resident.

Despite that outcome, the application states that on 24 December 2025 soldiers from the Ghana Armed Forces allegedly arrested Alhaji Abagre at his home in Bawku and transferred him to an undisclosed location. He is said to have been held incommunicado, with no access to lawyers and only minimal contact with his first son.

Filed on 5 January 2026, the habeas corpus application asks the court to order the security agencies to bring him before the court and justify his detention, failing which he should be released.

According to the supporting affidavit, family members were unable to locate him or secure legal representation until they later learnt that officers of the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) had obtained an ex parte order from the Adentan Circuit Court on 26 December 2025, purporting to authorise his continued detention.

Lawyers for the applicant, led by Martin Kpebu, argue that the NIB’s move was unconstitutional because Alhaji Abagre was never produced before the Adentan court, nor represented by counsel, before the order was granted.

They say this breaches Article 14 of the 1992 Constitution, which requires any person arrested or detained to be brought before a court within 48 hours, and renders the detention order “null, void and of no legal effect”.

The affidavit further contends that holding the applicant for roughly two weeks without access to legal assistance or adequate family interaction constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 15 of the Constitution.

Although his first son, Baba Seidu Abdulai, was at one stage permitted brief access, the family insists this was insufficient and could not replace confidential consultation with lawyers.

When the matter was called, the presiding judge, Her Ladyship Halima El-Alawa Abdul Bassit, informed the parties that she had only recently been alerted to the application because of additional judicial assignments and needed more time to study the file.

Mr Kpebu did not oppose the adjournment but invited the court to be guided by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kpebu (No. 4) v Attorney-General (No. 4), which held that the 48-hour rule applies strictly, including weekends and public holidays, where personal liberty is at stake.

The court adjourned the case to Monday and directed that the habeas corpus application be taken at 9:00 a.m. for hearing.