SUPREME COURT ADVISES TSATSU, AG TO FILE PAPERS

JULY 30, 2008 (CENTRE SPREAD)

THE Supreme Court yesterday advised Tsatsu Tsikata and the Attorney-General to file the necessary processes by today, July 30, 2008 to enable the court to hear Tsikata’s application which is seeking the court to quash the Fast Track High Court judgement which incarcerated him for five years.
According to the President of the court, Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, it was important for the parties to avoid what she termed “unnecessary surprise skirmishes” to pave the way for the hearing of the application on Thursday, 31, 2008.
She, therefore, advised the parties to oppose each other’s application with “practical reasons” to avoid the unnecessary dragging of issues.
Ms Justice Akuffo gave the advice when Tsikata, the former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), moved his application at the court’s sitting in Accra yesterday and further prayed the court to enable him to respond to the Attorney-General’s opposition to his application.
Other members of the panel were Mr Justice Julius Ansah, Ms Justice Rose Owusu, Mr Justice S. K. Asiamah and Mr Justice Jones Dotse.
The matter had been adjourned sine die on two different occasions after Tsikata had raised objection to the empanelling of Mr Justice S. A. Brobbey and Mr Justice Annin Yeboah.
At the court’s sitting on July 16, 2008, he sprang a surprise by telling the packed court that he objected to the empanelling of Mr Justice Brobbey to hear the matter because the judge had conducted investigations into allegations of bias against the trial judge, Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban, who sentenced him.
On July 22, 2008, Tsikata objected to the empanelling of Mr Justice Yeboah on the grounds that the judge was part of the panel at the Court of Appeal which heard his appeal regarding the immunity of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to testify for him.
The Accra Fast Track High Court on July 15, 2008 stayed proceedings in a mini trial requested by the jailed former chief executive of the GNPC to determine allegations of bias against Mrs Justice Abban.
That followed a motion filed by the Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey, on the grounds that the reliefs being sought by Tsikata were the same as another application before the Supreme Court.
Tsikata, however, thought otherwise and insisted that his application before the superior court was different.
Tsikata filed a motion at the court to disqualify Mrs Justice Abban, a Court of Appeal judge with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, who had tried and jailed him for five years for causing financial loss to the state and misapplying public property, from hearing his application for bail pending the outcome of an appeal he had filed against his sentence.
He, therefore, sought a mini trial as consequent to a recommendation by the Chief Justice that his petition of bias against the trial judge could not be handled administratively but by a court of competent jurisdiction.
However, before the case could be heard, the A-G filed a motion to stay proceedings pending a similar issue before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, on June 25, 2008, suspended judgement on whether or not the IFC should be ordered to testify in the case in which Tsikata was accused of causing financial loss to the state.
That followed a request by Tsikata to the court to “arrest” its judgement and invoke its supervisory jurisdiction by quashing his conviction by the lower court.
Tsikata was, on June 18, 2008, found guilty on three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state and another count of misapplying public property and sentenced to five years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently.
The former chief executive of the GNPC was charged in 2002 with three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state through a loan he guaranteed for Valley Farms, a private cocoa producing company, on behalf of the GNPC and another count of misapplying GH¢2,000 of public property.
Valley Farms contracted the loan from Caisse Francaise de Developement in 1991 but defaulted in the payment and the GNPC, which acted as the guarantor, was compelled to pay it in 1996.