A high-stakes standoff over a passport has landed the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Kwame Baffoe (Abronye DC), on the brink of police custody, unless he can immediately produce travel documents he says are already in the hands of British authorities.
The Accra High Court on Thursday dismissed Abronye’s urgent application to vary his bail conditions, after his lawyers revealed that his passport was currently with the UK High Commission, processing a student visa.
The ruling means Abronye must surrender the document to the court as originally ordered, or face remand.
The core dispute: Abronye was granted bail on May 21 on the condition that he deposit his passport with the court registry.
He is facing charges of offensive conduct and publishing false news over alleged derogatory remarks about a circuit court judge.
On Thursday, June 4, the day his lawyers appeared in court seeking a variation, Abronye himself was absent.
Lead counsel Daniel Martey Addo explained that his client had secured admission to a school in the United Kingdom, with travel scheduled for June 14.
He submitted that the passport had already been lodged with the UK High Commission on May 2, well before Abronye was even charged or granted bail.
The legal team argued that forcing Abronye to retrieve the passport would jeopardise his travel and educational plans.
Prosecution pushes back: Principal State Attorney Joshua Sackey was unconvinced. He pointed to a critical timeline discrepancy: While the defence claimed the passport had been submitted on May 2, the receipt from the UK High Commission bore the date May 25, four days after Abronye was granted bail on May 21.
“The accused had his passport in his possession at the time bail was granted,” Sackey argued. “He chose to submit it to the High Commission afterwards, in direct violation of this court’s orders.”
The ruling: Presiding Judge Halima El-Alawa Abdul-Basit sided firmly with the prosecution. Describing Abronye’s actions as a “flagrant disregard for the court’s orders,” she rejected the application to vary the bail conditions.
“This court will not condone a situation where an accused person picks and chooses which orders to obey,” the judge stated.
She ordered that Abronye be remanded in police custody until he surrenders his passport to the court, a practical impossibility, his lawyers note, given that the document remains with the UK High Commission.
What’s next? Abronye’s legal team faces a difficult choice: attempt an urgent appeal, ask the UK High Commission to return the passport (which would likely cancel the visa application), or allow their client to be taken into custody.
The case has drawn attention not only for the underlying charges but also for the procedural clash between court authority and an accused person’s prior travel arrangements.
Abronye did not appear in court on June 4, and it remains unclear whether he will voluntarily surrender himself or await enforcement of the remand order.