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| Alhaji Alhassan Mohammed Imoro |
The Accra Circuit Court will on
Monday, November 3, 2014 decide whether or not to grant bail to the
Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Alhaji Alhassan
Mohammed Imoro, who has been accused of allegedly stealing GH¢86.9
million belonging to the state.
He is, therefore, to remain in lawful custody until the next adjourned date.
A
five-member legal team led by Mr Dennis Adjei Dwomoh put in a bail
application after the prosecution had prayed the court to once again
remand Alhaji Imoro for investigations to continue.
The presiding judge, Mr Francis Obiri, fixed November 3, 2014 for delivery of his ruling on the bail application.
He
also directed the prosecution to send the accused person to the Police
Hospital for medical care after Mr Dwomoh had informed the court that
Alhaji Imoro suffered from asthma.
Alhaji Imoro has pleaded not
guilty to one count of stealing, contrary to Section 124 (1) of the
Criminal Offences Act, Act 29 of 1960.
Interesting dimension
An
interesting episode ensued when Mr Dwomoh complained of inhumane
treatment meted out to Alhaji Imoro in the cells of the Bureau of
National Investigations (BNI).
Notable among them were the
allegation that lawyers for Alhaji Imoro were not given ample time to
have a conference with him; the refusal of BNI officials to allow the
accused person to either eat home-made food or have access to warm
clothing except blanket, and boxer shorts.
But the investigator in
charge of the case refuted some of the allegations and explained that
the accused person could commit suicide with his clothing.
He also told the court that the BNI had caterers who would prepare any special meal for the accused person if he so wished.
Considering
the allegations levelled against the BNI by the defence team, the court
directed that the accused person be transferred to either a prison or
police custody.
Immediately after the court’s pronouncement,
Alhaji Imoro beckoned his lawyer to the docket, and had a short
inaudible discussion with him.
Lawyer Dwomoh, afterwards, reversed his earlier plea and told the court his client was okay staying in the BNI cells.
The
court accordingly reversed its earlier decision and directed the state
to place Alhaji Imoro in BNI cells, give him medical care, provide him
with a special meal upon request, as well as allow him to have access to
his lawyers and family members within working hours.
Voluminous documents
Earlier,
a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr A. A. Annor, had prayed the
court to remand the accused person because investigators were dealing
with voluminous documents, and still in the process of interrogating
witnesses.
“Our instructions are that because of the voluminous
manner of documents and the need to contact certain people scattered
throughout Ghana, it is the contention of the prosecution that granting
bail at this juncture will result in interference with witnesses and
evidence,” Mr Annor stated.
But his submission was met with fierce rejection from Mr Dwomoh, who tagged the prosecution’s prayer as a “broken record”.
He
said it was unfortunate for the prosecution to hold such position and
queried what would happen if investigations were to last more than a
year or two.
Facts
According to the facts
of the case, the BNI in July, 2014 began a nationwide investigation into
the operations of the NSS with regard to the payment of monthly
allowances to service persons.
It said investigations so far had
revealed that for every month starting from September 2013, to July
2014, GH¢7.9 million was paid to 22,612 non-existing/ghosts service
persons, resulting in a total loss of GH¢86.9 million within the period.
It
came up during the investigations that the ghost names were generated
at the NSS headquarters under the supervision of Alhaji Imoro.
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