Executive Director of Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey is accusing the Domestic Violence and Victim Support unit of the police service of unethically exposing his children to public ridicule in their handling of the dispute with his wife.

In a statement Dr. Akwetey says he’s shocked by attempts made by DOVVSU in connivance with his estranged wife Dr. Sylvia Annie to have him detained during the Christmas and New Year period over a family matter that has long been settle.

Below is the full statement

On December 31, 2013, Ghana News Agency (GNA) and PEACEFMONLINE.COM carried a story entitled “Court Grants Self-Recognisance Bail to Dr. Akwetey”, which has since been widely publicised by other media houses.

The case presented on December 31, 2013, was an old case that had been presented before a court of competent jurisdiction in September 2011. I have been discharged on all the counts and the case had ended and been struck-off. This sudden arousal of interest in that old case, on the same facts and the same charges before a different judge in a different court on no other dates than December 24 and December 31 is part of diabolical plans to embarrass me and destroy my reputation. One does not easily get a bail easily when detained on dates followed by extensive holidays!

For sometime now I have been aware that my estranged wife, Dr Sylvia Anie, formerly of the Ghana Aids Commission and also a former employee of the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, with the support of DOVVSU and other faceless persons and shadowy characters were plotting an assault on my reputation. I have also been warned on several occasions that the media would be used as the instrument for that purpose.  In order to avert that I was advised to consider reconciling with her, abort the on-going divorce proceedings at the High Court in Accra, and overlook serious threats to my personal security.

I refused to give in to the demands. Consequently, a process of harassment and intimidation from DOVVSU was initiated to prosecute me on December 24, 2013 on the same old charges that had been struck off. However this was averted when I petitioned the Director-General of Police CID on December 23, 2013. Surprisingly, on December 30 an express order was given that I should be prosecuted immediately. I was invited to appear in Court on December 31, hence the court proceedings of that day.

Fortunately, the Judge in her wisdom, on hearing the facts of the case both from the DOVVSU prosecutor and from my lawyer and being apprised that there are divorce proceedings on the same matter in the High Court since September 2011 decided to grant me a self-recognisant bail. It is my hope that the divorce proceedings will be handled expeditiously by the appropriate Court and the matters settled as soon as possible.

Further the negative impression being created by DOVVSU and Dr Sylvia Anie that I am a cruel and uncaring father to my three precious children is patently false. As a father I am highly protective of my children and therefore greatly distressed by the allegations being made against me in public. My three children have always been comfortable with me and are happy and secure at home in our residence and their mother Dr Sylvia Anie also comfortably lives there.

If DOVVSU and Dr Anie truly had the interest of the children at heart they would not have attempted to have me prosecuted and possibly detained me on December 24 or December 31, 2013, a Christmas period of happy family re-union. Shockingly, the release of DOVVSU’s charge sheet to the media contained the names of my children. The least they could have done was to have professionally and ethically protected the children. My only plea now is that DOVSSU and the media will henceforth do all they can to respect the rights of my children to privacy, decency and dignity.

My children have been traumatised by the actions of DOVVSU and their mother. I am distressed by it but as a responsible father I have and will continue to provide the emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual support that they need in these trying times for our family. God is our faithful protector.

It is my firm conviction that the actions of DOVSSU constitute a flagrant abuse of due process and State power. I wish to reassure my family, friends and well-wishers that the children and I are well and that I have neither changed in character nor in conviction. Thank you.

eoakwetey@gmail.com

Accra, January 2, 2014