Deputy Interior Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu says he is embarrassed by news that a bench warrant was issued for his arrest by the Fast Track High Court in Accra. According to the Chronicle newspaper, the arrest order issued on Tuesday by Justice Victor Offoe followed the Deputy Minister’s persistent refusal to honour court sittings over a contempt of court case brought against him by three auctioneers. But the Deputy Minister told Joy News he had received assurances from the Attorney General’s office that an agreement had been reached already with the complainant. Mr. Agyeman-Manu said he got the court summons only about five days after meeting the Auctioneers Association and the substantive matter was that the Auctioneers Board had refused to give a licence to one Alhaji who proceeded to court to seek redress. He said the issue had previously been discussed and a licence issued for the complainant two days before he received the summons following which he called the Deputy Attorney General and the matter referred to his office. He said the Deputy Attorney General conferred with counsel for the complainant and subsequently asked him (Agyeman-Manu) to attend to his business because the complainant was going to withdraw the case from court. Agyeman-Manu said he travelled thereafter and even upon his return, he followed up on the case, and was told by the Attorney General’s office that ‘there was no problem, the lawyer has dealt with it, the complainant’s lawyer’, only to be informed on phone on Wednesday morning about the Chronicle publication. He maintained that the complainant had about six weeks ago sent his agent to collect the issued licence and wondered why he would still pursue the matter in court. Mr. Agyeman-Manu said he would be in court for the first time in his life on Wednesday and was hopeful the judge would rescind the warrant. The contempt case against the deputy minister who is also the Chairman of the Auctioneers Registration Board, according to the Chronicle publication followed Agyeman-Manu’s failure to comply with an earlier judgment ordering him to renew the Auctioneer Licenses of the three to enable them operate in the country. The paper said for the third time since February 21, 2007 when the motion for contempt was served on him, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu had failed to attend court sittings. The motion, initially moved by the counsel for the applicant on February 19 this year with subsequent hearing dates on March 13 as well as March 27 saw neither the Deputy Minister of Interior nor his lawyer, the Attorney General in court to answer for the case. An order issued by the court on March 13, this year indicated that the Attorney General who has the responsibility of defending "such persons" be served with the court documents and if the respondent and his counsel fail to appear in court the case will proceed. An affidavit signed by Alhaji Abdullah K.S. Williams on behalf of his two other co-applicants, Ben Wojogbe and Calvis Okine in support of their application to commit the Deputy Minister for contempt of court, noted that the court's judgment dated November 15, 2005 pronounced them as qualified auctioneers. Applicants indicated further that the court made an order directing the Board to renew their licenses which the latter blatantly refused to comply with and on the contrary warned them by a letter dated January 31, 2006 not to practice as auctioneers for as long as their licenses had not been renewed. According to the applicants, the refusal of the board to renew their licenses was a deliberate attempt in "response to what Board members considered to be an affront to their power" for being hauled before the court. In furtherance of their arguments, the applicants were of the view that members of the Auctioneer Registration Board seem to be of the opinion that if the licenses were renewed, they (applicants) would have monopoly over the auction sale business in the country to the disadvantage of "quack auctioneers who were in the good books of the board". Source: The Chronicle