Tsatsu Tsikata freed

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 (Page 3 Lead)

PRESIDENT J.A. Kufuor has granted a free, absolute and unconditional pardon to the incarcerated former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr Tsatsu Tsikata.
More than 500 people, including high-profile personalities who served various prison terms for causing financial loss to the state, have also been pardoned.
A statement signed by a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Frank Agyekum, and issued in Accra yesterday said the President granted the free, absolute and unconditional pardon under his prerogative of mercy as enshrined in Article 72 of the Constitution.
The pardon means Mr Tsikata, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment by an Accra Fast Track High Court for causing financial loss to the state, and the others never committed any offence.
It also means Mr Tsikata, who is still on admission at the Cardiothoracic Centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, and the others can be appointed into public office, as well as stand for elections, without any criminal record on their heads.
Other persons who have been granted free, absolute and unconditional pardon, although they have completed their various terms of prison sentence, are Mr Kwame Peprah, a former Minister of Finance and Economic Planning; Mr Akenteng Appiah-Menka, who served a prison term in 1986 for causing financial loss to the state, as well as Mallam Issah, a former Minister of Youth and Sports who also served a prison term under the Kufuor administration.
Other personalities who have served various prison terms for causing financial loss to the state and have been pardoned include Mr Dan Abodakpi, a former Minister of Trade and Industry, and Mr Ibrahim Adam, a former Minister of Food and Agriculture; Dr George Sepah-Yankey, a former Director at the Ministry of Finance, all under the NDC.
Other affected persons are first-time offenders who have served more than half of their prison terms, nursing mothers, prisoners above 70, seriously ill prisoners and persons serving at the President’s pleasure.
Prisoners who have been convicted for murder, rape, armed robbery, narcotic offences, defilement, manslaughter, threat of death, carrying of offensive weapons and escape from lawful custody are not included.
However, those who have been convicted for murder and have served at least 10 years, have shown remorse and are well behaved will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment and a definite term of 20 years, with effect from the day of amnesty.
One of the lawyers for Mr Tsikata, Mr Tony Lithur, confirmed President Kufuor's unconditional pardon for Mr Tsikata in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday.
He, however, could not state the details of the pardon, with the explanation that those details were with Mr Tsikata.
Mr Lithur, who is a member of the National Democratic Congress' transition team on legal affairs, was in the transition meeting when the Daily Graphic called to verify whether or not Mr Tsikata had been granted a Presidential pardon.
Asked whether or not Mr Tsikata would pursue the appeal against his conviction, Mr Lithur said he could not tell at the moment.
"We are yet to study the entire content of the pardon and advise Mr Tsikata on what to do next," counsel explained.
On December 18, 2008, the Court of Appeal, by a unanimous decision, ruled that the Accra Fast Track High Court erred in dismissing the bail application pending appeal filed by Mr Tsikata.
It, therefore, upheld an appeal filed against the dismissal of the application by Tsikata against the trial judge, Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban.
According to the court, the trial judge erred in dismissing the application because at the time the application was dismissed Tsikata had not even moved it, based on the fact that he did not have a copy of the court’s judgement which was very essential for his bail application.
It said the judge could have, under the circumstance, adjourned the matter to enable Tsikata to have a copy of the judgement, instead of dismissing the application.
By the decision, the court thus restored Tsikata’s bail application but it did not give directions as to where it should be heard.
His application for bail was expected to be heard this week, according to sources.
Mrs Justice Abban, on July 20, 2008, dismissed a bail application filed by Tsikata pending an appeal against his five-year conviction for causing financial loss to the state.
According to Mrs Justice Abban, Tsikata’s refusal to move the motion for bail pending appeal was an indication that he was no longer interested in pursuing the application.
She had earlier refused to decline jurisdiction in the hearing of the bail application on the grounds that she was not biased, as had been alleged by Tsikata.
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.
He 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 on behalf of the GNPC and another count of misapplying 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.
Tsikata, who had maintained his innocence throughout the six-year trial, appealed against his conviction.