An Accra High Court on Monday issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Mr Yaw Donkor, the Director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), for disobeying its order to release a Volvo truck to its owner and for failing to appear before the court to answer a charge of contempt. Mr Donkor was to appear in court on Monday to show reasons why he should not be punished for disobeying the court’s order given on April 21, 2011 to release the truck to Mr Kofi Owusu Boateng, but he failed to appear in court. Neither his counsel nor any representative of his was in court. Following that, Mr Kwame Fosu-Gyeabuor, counsel for Mr Boateng, prayed the court for a bench warrant, which Mr Justice Mustapha Habib Logo granted and adjourned the matter to August 11, 2011. Last year, an Accra High Court acquitted and discharged five persons, including Mr Boateng, of two counts of conspiracy to deal in ammunition and possession of ammunition after a seven-member jury on December 16, 2010, unanimously entered a verdict of not guilty on the two charges. However, the boxes of cartridges were confiscated by the state and the issue regarding the truck involved was left untouched. The state on January 14, 2011 filed an appeal against the acquittal of the accused persons. Meanwhile, Mr Boateng had on March 25, 20 11, filed a motion for the release of the truck with registration number XR 550 AKD to him and the motion was upheld on April 21, 2011, when the court made the order for the release of the truck. According to the applicant, attempts to serve the BNI Director with the court’s order proved futile, since court bailiffs were prevented from serving him, thus compelling him to file an application for contempt of court on June 21, 2011. At the last sitting of the court, all the parties were present and the case was adjourned to August 8, 2011, for arguments but there was no representation for the respondent w hen the matter was called on Monday. In his affidavit in support of his motion, Mr Boateng said after his acquittal by the court on December 16, 2010, the court subsequently ordered on April 21, 2011, that the truck should be released and a search at the court’s registry indicated that the BNI Director was served with the order to release the vehicle. He deposed that despite the service of the order to release the vehicle to him, the BNI Director had refused to release it to him and that the director was in contempt of court and should be committed to prison until he purged himself. But in an affidavit in opposition to the motion for contempt, Mr Anthony Rexford Wiredu, a state prosecutor, deposed that he had been the prosecutor since the inception of the case and that Mr Boateng was the front man to the deal. He said that immediately after the acquittal of the accused persons, he filed a motion on notice of appeal in the matter on January 14, 20ll, and the law was that by that notice of appeal the court’s order remained suspended until the expiration of the period. Furthermore, he said, the respondent had also filed a stay of execution on July 17, 2011, and for those reasons the respondent had not disobeyed the orders of the court, since in effect there was no order at all. The four other persons who were acquitted by the court were Idowu Akanni Josiah, Yaw Yeboah, Yaw Kwakye and Big Joe.