Monrovia – After spending over 48 hours in police custody, lawyers representing Guaranty Trust (GT) Bank “former” Managing Director, used the law to secure his release from the custody of the Liberia National Police (LNP). Mr. Ayodeji Bejide’s legal team had filed a petition for the Writ of Habeas Corpus against the Liberia National Police (LNP).
This legal instrument forced the police authority to release the “living body” of the accused to the court.
However, few minutes following his release to Criminal Court ‘C’, he was re-arrested and charged with ‘aggravated assault,’ by the Monrovia Magisterial Court.
Nevertheless, Magistrate J. Kennedy Peabody of the Monrovia Magisterial Court, admitted the defendant to bail subsequently releasing him after his “criminal assurance bond was guaranteed” by the Insurance Company of Africa.
“Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice has obtained a Writ of Ne Exeat Republica and informed all border posts not to allow defendant Bejide to leave the Republic of Liberia,” a release from the Ministry of Justice disclosed.
Case Background.
On Tuesday, August 28, the accused, who was the Managing Director of GT Bank, inflicted a wound on the lip of one of the bank’s employees, Mr. Edward Freeman, resulting into him bleeding, visibly.
The alleged act is in violation of section 14.1 of the New Penal Law of Liberia.
On that Tuesday, defendant Bejide was invited for questioning by officers of the LNP after a video of the incident had gone viral on social media and a formal complaint lodged by Mr. Freeman.
He was accompanied by his legal counsels by 11:40 a.m. at the LNP headquarters.
At the police headquarters, he was arrested, placed under custody and allegedly subjected to formal criminal investigation.
In Bejide’s legal team’s petition for the Writ of Hebeas Corpus, they alleged that their client was “interrogated contrary to the expressed provision of the Constitution, which guarantees the right of an accused person to be formally charged within forty-eight hours before a court of competent jurisdiction Article 21(f) of the 1986 Constitution.”
They described the act by the police as “flagrant violation of his constitutional rights.”
Their petition was subsequently granted by Criminal Court ‘C’ Judge Blamo Konto, who presided over the hearing of the petition for the Writ of Hebeas Corpus.
While leaving the court, it was right at the entrance that the accused was served a Writ of Arrest by officers of the Monrovia Magisterial Court. Subsequently, he was re-arrested and charged with Aggravated Assault.
Bejide is spending his first night home after spending 48 hours in police custody for his alleged action on his former employee, Mr. Edward Freeman.
