Accra Mayor, Stanley Adjiri-Blankson, finally appeared before the Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday, after earlier attempts by court bailiffs to serve him had failed. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) boss has been dragged to the court by an Accra-based businessman, Mr Labib C. Seraphim, who is praying the court to imprison the AMA boss for contempt. Mr Seraphim is also imploring the court to impose a heavy fine on the AMA as an entity for refusing to carry out the judgement of the court, two years after it had been ordered to evict hawkers on the Knutsford Avenue in the Central Business District of Accra. The High Court, on April 10, 2006, ordered the defendants to evict hawkers on the Knutsford Avenue because their occupation was unlawful and hampered the business activities of the plaintiff and other shop owners. It further restrained the assembly from converting the Knutsford Avenue into a market for hawkers. Mr Adjiri-Blankson has filed an affidavit in opposition to the suit and the case has been adjourned to May 28, 2008. At an earlier sitting, counsel for Mr Seraphim expressed his client's frustration at the inability of the bailiffs to serve the AMA boss after several attempts. The judge, Mr Justice Ofoe, advised counsel to do a substituted service but the bailiffs finally succeeded in personally serving the AMA boss. In his application, Mr Seraphim claimed that the AMA had flouted the court’s orders by refusing to evict the hawkers, adding that they continued to exercise absolute dominion over the Knutsford Avenue, with the active connivance and complicity of the respondents. “The respondents’ wilful violation of the orders of this court, contained in its judgement, is infringing on the constitutionally guaranteed property rights of myself and other property owners on the Knutsford Avenue,” Mr Seraphim averred. According to him, the situation was gravely hampering his lawful business activities and those of other property owners. He further averred that in spite of the court’s clear order for the provision of vehicular accessibility for him and other property owners, there were still in place certain pillars erected by the AMA which should have been removed as part of the process of executing the court order. Source: Daily Graphic