Prosecutioin fails to turn up

Thursday, November 5, 2009 (Page 3)

THE prosecution on Wednesday, November 4,2009 failed to turn up at the trial of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Akwasi Osei-Ajdei, and the former Managing Director of the National Investment Bank (NIB), Daniel Charles Gyimah, without any official reason.
The Financial Division of the Fast Track High Court adjourned the matter, in which the two have been accused of wilfully causing financial loss to the state, to November 19 and 20, 2009, after it had stood down the case for almost an hour in anticipation that the prosecution would show up.
Osei-Adjei and Daniel Charles Gyimah were alleged to have acted together to steal 2,997 bags of rice, valued at US$1,408,590, but lawyers for the accused persons have argued that diplomatic efforts embarked upon by the accused persons to solve the food shortage in the country had been “criminalised”.
The two have been charged with eight counts of conspiracy, contravention of provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663), using public office for profit, stealing and wilfully causing financial loss to the state.
They pleaded not guilty to the charges and were each admitted to bail in the sum of GH¢200,000 with two sureties each to be justified.
As of 9:00 a.m. at the court’s sitting in Accra yesterday, the accused persons, defence lawyers, families, friends, sympathisers and journalists had turned up to witness the trial of the accused persons.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Bright Mensah, took his seat at exactly 9:20 a.m. to pave way for the matter to be called. However, it emerged that all the parties but the prosecution had not arrived.
Consequently, the judge stood the case down to attend to other cases.
At exactly 10:26 a.m., the trial judge beckoned the court clerk to call the matter again but it emerged that the prosecution had not arrived.
The investigator in the case was, however, present in court.
Counsel for Osei-Adjei, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, then enquired from the court whether or not the court had received an official letter explaining the absence of the prosecution to which the judge answered in the negative.
Mr Dame, who did not take kindly to the prosecution’s behaviour, said it was unfortunate that the prosecution had failed to make any attempt to speedily prosecute the case.
According to him the accused persons had been subjects of abuse and disparaging remarks as a result of being accused of causing financial loss to the state.
He said it was strange the prosecution had not made any attempt to prosecute the matter almost after 10 months of investigations.
Mr Dame said he would in future urge the court to discharge the accused persons if the prosecution did not act.
Counsel also urged the court to vary its bail condition which ordered Osei-Adjei to report once a week to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) on the grounds that his client currently resided in Kumasi and it was, therefore, Herculean for him (Osei-Adjei) to report to the BNI in Accra every week.
For his part, counsel for Gyimah, Colonel Alex Johnson (retd), had expressed his disappointment over the prosecution’s failure to turn up.
In response, Mr Justice Mensah reminded counsel that yesterday was the second time that the matter had been put before him.
The judge also indicated that the court would consider varying the bail conditions when the circumstance warranted.
The facts of the case were that some time in February 2008 a former Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Joe Baidoo-Ansah, initiated the importation of rice from India and in a letter dated February 13, 2008 the said minister requested the Government of India, through the High Commission of India in Ghana, to buy 100,000 metric tonnes of (25 - 35 per cent) broken rice.
According to the prosecution, the rice was to arrive in Ghana by May 2008 to help curb the severe increases in the prices of staples in Ghana, while the Ghana National Procurement Agency (GNPA) was the designated consignee.