The Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon.
Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, accompanied him. Speaking to newsmen, Vice President
Aliu Mahama said the summit adopted the "Kuala Lumpur Declaration,"
which called for the equitable distribution of international resources, lifting
of the debt burden, support for global peace and the rejection of the use of
force in international relations.
He said the summit reaffirmed
its support for the stand of the UN in the Iraqi crisis. It called on the
protagonists in the conflict in La Cote
Vice President Aliu Mahama held
bilateral discussions with the Deputy Prime Minister of
Owusu-Agyemang said from
The Group including members from
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Following this appointment, the
President has nominated Nana Kwadwo Seini as the new
Brong Ahafo Regional Minister subject to Parliamentary approval, an official
statement said.
The statement, signed by Kwabena
Agyepong, Press Secretary to the President and
Presidential Spokesman, said Charles Bintim, District
Chief Executive of the Saboba Chereponi
District, has also been nominated as the new Deputy Northern Regional Minister,
subject to Parliamentary approval. Consequently, the current Deputy Northern
Regional Minister, Issah Ketekewu,
is to be reassigned, the statement said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 March 2003-
Prophet Olormi Stephen Sarfo
of Nyamesompa Healing Church on Monday said Warrant
Officer Adjei Boadi, former member of the Provisional
National Defence Council (PNDC) became bitter with the church when it refused
to offer him spiritual support to stage a coup to oust the PNDC in 1989.
Olormi said Adjei Boadi
had been a member of the church since 1972 and in 1985 he put up a residence at
Ekwamkrom now Budumburam
camp where the church was based.
Olormi was responding to a question
from Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, a member of the
National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) as to why a member of the church could
turn bitter against the church's leadership after so many years of membership.
He said Adjei Boadi, who had earlier told the church of the cessation of
his membership with the then PNDC after four years of stay at Ekwamkrom, asked the Leadership of the church to pray for
him to succeed in a purported attempt to overthrow the government of the
Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
Olormi said the founder and the then
Leader of the church, Odiyifo Kwabena Ekwam refused on the grounds that Adjei Boadi
and the Chairman of the PNDC had in 1979 and 1982 sought spiritual help from
him to stabilise the army after two military takeovers in 1979 and 1981, and he
(Odiyifo Ekwam) would not
spiritually undo the PNDC.
Olormi alleged that bad blood developed
between Adjei Boadi and the church Leadership and he
(Adjei-Boadi) harassed the Ekwamkrom
community, who were mostly members of the church, to the extent that he put out
the light at the sickbay, where sick people from different walks of life had
come to seek healing at the prayer camp.
He said Adjei Boadi became offended when Odiyifo
Ekwam at a meeting advised the church members to
refrain from negative acts that brought the church's name into disrepute after
which Adjei Boadi threatened "to show the church
where power lies."
Olormi said Adjei Boadi
later conspired with one John Otoo and accused the
Prophet of flirting with Otoo's wife and when the
case was sent to the Police station it was entertained because it was a civil
case.
He said Otoo
beat up his wife, Cecilia, then a young woman, who had just undergone surgery
adding that Cecilia's father, a blind man in the camp, demanded the presence of
the one, who contracted Cecilia's marriage to Otoo at
a settlement meeting or else he would abrogate the marriage.
Olormi said Otoo
came in the company of Adjei Boadi and some friends
to the meeting leaving out the demanded respondent, and Cecilia's father was able
to make out that the demanded respondent was not present.
Olormi said the meeting ended on a bad
note with Adjei Boadi ordering him to keep quiet else
he would see what would happen to him. He said after that incident, there were
several threats and harassment with AK 47 and G3 rifles on the community, on
which a report was made to the Awutu-Beraku Police
but the Police failed to take action.
Olormi said four days later the Police
arrested Prophet Ekwam, the church Leadership and
other members of the community, but were later given bail.
Prophet Olormi
said after the release, Adjei Boadi shot at random in
the community and later arranged for the arrest of Odiyifo
Ekwam himself and a Prophetess of the church to the
BNI where they were interrogated by a five-member panel.
He said at the BNI, when their
lawyer asked for the charges, Peter Nanfuri, the then
BNI boss, ordered him to vamoose to avoid facing the wrath of the panel. Olormi said on 28 December 1988 Adjei Boadi
went on a shooting rampage and put off all lights in the sickbay at the prayer
camp which was reported to the Swedru Divisional Commander of the Ghana Police.
He said Adjei Boadi in April 1989 led a group of people to the camp to
beat one Prophetess, who had gone to pray for the sick, which was reported to
the Awutu-Beraku Police but they failed to take
action on an excuse that they were bereaved.
Later, Adjei Boadi
led a group of people with guns, knives, hammer and stones to the church and
threw the stones at the congregation, which interrupted their service. A driver
who had come to visit a patient at the camp was beaten and his car smashed.
Olormi said a report was made to the
Winneba Police. When the Police went to the camp they saw Adjei Boadi and his people, who had then pitched their camp on
the church premises with their flag on which they had written:
"Operation Scatter the
Devil", "Aluta Continua", and
"You Devil, Go Away from me", flying high. Olormi
confirmed being a former Presidential guard to the late General Fred Akuffo, former Head of State and said he went and rescued a
boy Adjei Boadi was strangling and seized from behind
Adjei Boadi's pistol from its holster, resulting in a
scuffle during which Olormi said Adjei Boadi hit his head several times with sticks.
He said the church members later
went into hiding when Adjei Boadi went home and
brought out an AK 47 and started shooting at random. They came out from hiding
only when they saw Police reinforcement at the camp.
Olormi said the then founder and 24
members of the church the hierarchy were arrested and sent to the BNI, Nima
Police station and the Police Information Room, where they spent three and four
months in detention without any charge.
He said after interrogation at
the BNI, Prophet Ekwam was driven to jail for more
that a year and Adjei Boadi threatened shooting the
wives of the Prophet and the people arrested if they dared to bring them food.
He prayed the Commission to
return to the Church the vast tract of land at Buduburam,
where the Liberian Refugee Camp is situated. Counsel for Adjei Boadi, Agyare Koi
Larbi, denied the charges against his client.
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They are Ketiboa
Blay, Jomoro District in
the Western Region, Kofi Wilson, Mfatsiman District
in the Central Region and Sam Baidu Kelele, Jasikan District in the
Volta Region.
A statement signed by Kwabena Agyepong, Presidential Spokesman, asked their respective
Regional Ministers to assume temporary responsibilities until new DCEs are
appointed. No reasons were given for the President's action.
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Bimbilla (Northern Region)
Tegah said the electoral materials
including voters' registers; ballot papers; ballot boxes and indelible ink had
been dispatched to all the 65 polling stations in the constituency.
The Wulensi
by-election had been occasioned by the disqualification of the former Member of
Parliament Samuel Nyimakan. The New Patriotic Party,
National Democratic Congress, People's National Convention, Democratic People's
Party, Eagle Party as well as two independent candidates are contesting the Wunlensi seat.
Tegah said 27,461 registered voters
would be expected to cast their votes adding that those with thumb-printed or
photo identity cards would be allowed to exercise their franchise. He said
while Police personnel would be deployed at every polling station, the military
would patrol the streets to forestall any disturbances.
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Ho (Volta Region)
Known as the Strategic
Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the GPRS, the strategy seeks the
harmonisation of policies, plans and programmes of all sectors so as to prevent
poverty related environmental projects and programmes in one sector from
degenerating into other environmental problems in other sectors to create
further poverty conditions.
The strategy document, which was
discussed at a two-day workshop at Ho last Friday, by representatives of Ministries,
Departments and Agencies (MDAs) engaged in poverty
alleviation programmes, identified a number of "cross-cutting
issues".
For example it said, "the Ministry of Lands and Forestry's policy of promoting the
use of rattan and bamboo, conflicts with water conservation policies. The
health policy to eradicate malaria on "zero pounding" has the potential
to conflict with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture's policy to encourage
irrigation through the construction of small dams.
In the same vein, the Ministry
of Roads and Transport's proposal to rehabilitate 110 roads, one in each
district required the participation of the health and education sectors.
The document said; "over
the last 10 years, there has been a growing acceptance among governments to integrate
environmental concerns more effectively at policy, programme and plan
levels".
The document said though the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) had been used worldwide to evaluate the
environmental effects of major projects, it had its limitations because it was output-driven
as opposed to the process-driven approach by the SEA.
The document enumerated other
weaknesses of the EIA as project oriented and site specific, lacking scope for
realistic assessment of alternatives as it was carried out after projects have
been designed.
It said EIA was output driven in
terms of report and was unable to foresee the cumulative impacts of individual projects,
which at first, might not appear to have any significant effects on the
environment.
The document said the SEA on the
other hand covered broad themes or sectors like poverty and forestry, and was
applied at national and regional levels and for individual communities.
"
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The Minister said some of the
structures, which included policy and regulations; knowledge and resources;
entrepreneurship and the development of partnership were the keys to the
success of ICT within the Sub-Region.
At a workshop organised by the
ECOWAS Secretariat and the World Bank for member countries in
The workshop was organised for
stakeholders in the ECOWAS Region to study a review report on the harmonisation
of telecommunications policies and regulations and make recommendations.
Owusu-Adjapong
noted that ICT was of primary importance in the Region's efforts to improve
economic conditions of the countries. "Indeed, they provide us with the
opportunity to overcome the handicaps that have conspired to retard the
economic development of the Sub-Region."
The Minister observed that the
issue of policy and regulations had become a challenge for any privatisation
exercise, saying that with the liberalisation of the industry, there was now
the opportunity to synchronise efforts to attract the much needed investments
to help accelerate the development of the Sub-Region.
It would also bring them closer,
he said and added "it is, therefore, imperative for us to standardise the
regulatory environment across the Sub-Region and also improve the regulatory
capacity building to deal with competition effectively".
Owusu-Adjapong
said
However, there were still some challenges
within the regulatory environments that needed to be looked at, Owusu-Adjapong said. He said
From 1996 when the National
Communications Authority Act was passed, the Sector Minister acted as the Board
until 2001 when a seven-member Board of Directors was established.
"At the time of the
appointment of the Board, the Authority had only one trained full-time
communications regulator and a low human resource base. "The
current government faced the challenge of continuing with the status quo of
allowing the Minister to act as the Board or shifting to the extreme position
of appointing a Board completely independent of the Ministry.
"Considering the low level
of human capacity at the NCA, government found it prudent to take the middle
way of having a seven-member Board as required under the law but including the
Minister as the chairman," the Minister said.
He said the country also needed
to overcome the challenge of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP),
but government had indicated its intention to legalise the VoIP
and the NCA was expected to make appropriate rules such that they would not
negate the Universal Access obligations of the traditional Public Switch
Telephone Network.
David Kamara,
Director, Infrastructure and Industry, ECOWAS Secretariat, said the vision of
the global information age that was emerging was one where every single form of
activity, be it social, economic, cultural or political, would depend on having
guaranteed access to telecommunications and information services.
"There is, therefore, no
gainsaying the major economic importance of telecommunications. In order for
the sector to play its role fully in this regard, strong efforts must be made
to co-ordinate and regulate its activities on a regional scale," he added.
Kamara said ECOWAS shared the goal of
member-countries to harmonise telecommunications facilities and called on GSM
operators within the community and stakeholders to facilitate the signature of
roaming agreements.
This, he said, would make it
possible to use the same mobile terminal without changing the SIM card within
the Sub-Region and at the same time facilitate trade, travel and business in
the ECOWAS space.
Major John Tandoh
(Rtd), Acting Director General of the NCA, said while
national telecommunications legislation was developing rapidly in some countries,
it was not so developed in other countries in the Sub-Region.
He urged participants to see the
main objective of the workshop as an opportunity to create a plan and draft
timetable for harmonising telecommunications and convergence policies within
the Sub-Region.
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Professor John Anarfi, Deputy
Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER)
of the University, told the GNA in an interview in Accra on Monday that
although there were pockets of HIV/AIDS prevention activities on campus by
various groups, there was no comprehensive programme managed or supported from
the top to deal with the pandemic on campus.
Prof. Anarfi said so far, it was
only the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,
He said the lack of information
about the state of the disease on the Legon campus could be attributed to the
absence or inadequate records from the
This was because they did not
capture the situation of university personnel and students, who might attend
outside clinics, either because the under-resourced university hospitals were
unable to offer the necessary treatment or because of concern that records from
such hospitals would not remain confidential.
On whether HIV/AIDS prevention
messages played a significant role during the orientation of new students to
the
He called for greater focus on
HIV/AIDS prevention activities among tertiary students, explaining that these
students were among the most vulnerable because of they formed the bulk of the
youth, who were the hardest hit by the scourge.
He said the liberal environment
coupled with the mix of partners and the close community of students living
together between three and four months over a period of time made it a fertile
ground for the spread of the disease.
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Sunyani (Brong Ahafo) 04 March 2003-
Mr Francis Kusi-Appiah, Supervising High Court Judge
in Sunyani, on Monday observed that all the stakeholders in the criminal
justice system contributed to delays in the courts.
He said judges; lawyers; court
officials; jurors, accused persons; witnesses and legal system itself
contributed in one way or the other to the delays. The Supervising High Court
Judge was speaking at the opening of the Brong Ahafo Regional Criminal Session
(Assizes) in Sunyani.
He said delay was "a sad
denial of justice" as it was imperative that every accused person should
know his or her fate timeously and equated the mental
torture that it engendered to "slow hanging, especially if the person were
found to be innocent of the charge against him or her".
Justice Kusi-Appiah
said the attitude of some judges contributed in no small way to the delays in
the courts, citing unprepared judges, over indulgence with litigants and
lawyers, judgement writing and inefficient case management.
He, therefore, urged his colleagues
to have an attitudinal and behavioural change needed to ensure expeditious
justice. Justice Kusi-Appiah asked state attorneys to
act expeditiously and to brief Police investigators of the time of trial so
that witnesses could be brought at the appropriate time as well as help to
refresh the memories of witnesses before the trial.
He deplored "needless
adjournments" by private legal practitioners, poorly prepared lawyers and
tactics designed to lengthen trials as well as repetitive questions by some of
them, which he said all accounted for delays in court.
The Supervising High Court Judge
did not leave out accused persons, whom he said should assist their lawyers,
through relatives, to produce witnesses for the proper conduct of the case so
that justice could be done to all parties in the case.
He said the legal system was
also a contributory factor in the delays in court, saying: "Some of our rules are outmoded or too
archaic and thus not relevant to our present day situation".
Justice Kusi-Appiah
expressed regrets that out of the 39 cases on murder, robbery, rape and canal knowledge listed to be tried in this year's Assizes
most of the accused had been in custody ranging from three to five years.
Three accused persons out of the
30 murder cases listed have been in custody for nine years, five in custody between
four to six years, 19 have been in custody for three years, one person for a
year whilst two accused persons have been granted bail.
Two persons out of six charged
with rape have been in custody for eight years, two for seven years and the
other two have been granted bail, he said. The Supervising High Court judge said
one person charged with canal knowledge had been in custody for seven years and
one person charged in the two robbery cases to be tried had been in custody for
two years and the other for a year.
Kusi-Appiah expressed regret that a
person on remand and yet to be tried was made to suffer the same predicament,
hardship, inconvenience as persons properly tried, convicted and sentenced by a
court of jurisdiction.
Such accused persons were under
the same confinement, conditions, rules and regulations and ate the same food
at the prison house as persons convicted and sentenced.
He, therefore, appealed to all
stakeholders involved in the administration of justice to play their roles
effectively and efficiently to ensure the expeditious trial of cases and
expressed the hope that the introduction of automation or fast track court
system by the government would be expedited in the trial of cases to avoid
unnecessary delays.
Yaw Adjei Duffuor,
Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, called for speedy trials since apart from
the congestion created at the prisons, those on remand had been a major drain
on the meagre resources of the prisons.
He said the general public
perceived the justice system as being too slow due to frequent adjournments
requested by lawyers. He observed that informants in some cases even turned
into accused persons and cited an alleged armed robbery case, on the
Whilst the armed robbery case
had not been taken to court, the stealing case was being prosecuted in court, he said and called for serious attention to be given
to the robbery case to encourage informants to assist the Police in their
operations.
Adjei-Duffuor
suggested that people inconvenienced in such a manner should be compensated with
a percentage of court fines. Nana Obiri Boahen, President of the Brong Ahafo Regional Bar Association,
appealed to the media to be cautious; circumspect; accurate; concise and direct
with their reportage of court proceedings.
He advised that attempts to
sensationalise issues with catchy and captivating headlines, which did not
reflect on the real situations must be avoided and
called on media practitioners to feel free to contact lawyers handling cases
before the courts for clarifications.
The Regional President entreated
members of the jury to discharge their duties without fear or favour and to
avoid tribal considerations, religious affiliation, social relations and
cultural affinity.
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He said Ghana's reconciliation
process like that of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
would build a consensus for total national integration, but noted that it was
necessary for witness to tell the truth, and not to use subterfuge in their
testimonies.
Dewornu made the statement after giving
testimony in a case in which, Togbui Christian Afaglo, Progress Chief of the Klikor
Traditional Area, mentioned him in a statement, saying he issued instructions
for his arrest and subsequent detention.
Afaglo had also said Dewornu also joined with others to seize a school and a
post office he had established and started collecting revenue from a pipe borne
water project he had undertaken.
Dewornu denied all the allegations and
said he only read of the allegations from press reports after Afaglo had given testimony at the Commission. He said it
was untrue that he (Dewornu) arranged with the
Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) to get Afaglo arrested.
Dewornu said Afaglo
rather sold things that were meant for the 31st December Women's
Movement. He said Afaglo's wife approached him in 1990
as the then IGP to use his influence to contact the then PNDC Chairman to for
the release of Afaglo, then in incarceration and also
receiving treatment at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Dewornu said he told Afaglo's wife that he could not in any way influence the
Chairman for Afaglo's release and rather asked her to
contact the Chief of Klikor to play that role on her
behalf.
He also denied any involvement
in Jerry Doe, one time Chief Licensing Officer of the Ghana Police, in the
arrest of Afaglo. Dewornu
said if Afaglo had stayed on and not escaped into
exile, he would have been released very soon after the wife made the approach.
Dewornu registered his strong protest
to an allegation made by Afaglo that he helped the
people to use his name for a 4 June celebration. General Emmanuel Erskine, a member of the Commission, expressed his appreciation
for the former IGP and asked him to use his influence to see how best to
restore peace between the people of Klikor
Traditional area, himself and Togbui Afaglo.
Hearing continues.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 March 2003-
Apostle Dr Augustine Annor- Yeboah, Acting Chairman
of the Christ Apostolic Church International (CACI), on Monday said that even
though there was some misunderstanding between him and some members of the
National Executive Committee (NEC) the issue had been resolved.
"I find it extremely sad
that at a time the church is on its forward march towards progress,
development, peace and evangelism to save lost souls, some members should be
orchestrating such plots to attack my image and reputation and also seek to
bring disaffection and division within the church," he said.
Apostle Annor-Yeboah
was reacting to reports of allegations that he plans to split the church when
his tenure as Acting Chairman ends. "As Christians, I think the most appropriate
place to resolve our differences is the church," he told a press
conference in
He confirmed that he once
apologised for the sake of peace within the church. "I see no reason why Christians
cannot reconcile on issues that do not even warrant reconciliation."
Apostle Annor-Yeboah
said the allegations, which might have triggered the media reports were a
petition to the National Executives Council from some regional pastors pledging
support for him to continue in office and the questioning of the
constitutionality of the post of the Acting General-Secretary.
"I have helped to build the
church; my contributions have been very enormous, I will be the last to destroy
it." On his decision to step down as Acting Chairman, Apostle Annor-Yeboah said "the decision to step down was
spiritually wrong, more so when I have not mis-conducted
myself in any way".
He said that he was prepared to
compromise on the thorny issue of building houses for members of the National
Executives. Apostle Annor-Yeboah said seven out of
the 10 National Executives were against his proposals that a 450 million-cedi
house should be built for each of them. He said his position was that the money
should be an ex-gratia award.
He said he thought at the time
that the amount, which would add up to 4.5 billion cedis, would drain the resources
of the church hence his suggestion. On the impending General Council meeting of
the church he suggested that it would be appropriate for it to be suspended for
the NEC to resolve all their differences first.
Apostle Annor-Yeboah
said over the past 15 years he had worked so hard to improve the financial
status of the church from nothing to an enviable level thus improving salaries
of its staff among other things. "Much as we all appreciate the important
role played by the media in ensuring the rule of law, good governance and
public accountability, it must be emphasised that ill-informed and misguided
reportage, especially about personalities and character assassination will not
do the nation any good."
Apostle Annor-Yeboah
advised the media to focus on what he thought were "critical development
issues" to enhance the well-being and standard of living of the people. He
said the citing of the Bureau of National Investigations in the story was an
attempt to incite fear in members of the church. However, this had backfired,
judging from the number of phone calls he had received so far, he said.
"I do not see how the BNI
should be brought into the issue at all since what is happening is basically an
internal affair of the church that poses no security threat to the state."
He said a one-week training programme for all the members of the Executive at
the Ghana Institute of Public Administration (GIMPA) expected to have started
Monday had been suspended due to the matters arising out of the media reports.
Meanwhile it might be pertinent
to state that when the National News Agency is reporting on security matters it
does not have the luxury of crosschecking with those involved.
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This, he said, meant more than
50 per cent of the production work on textbooks, including writing,
illustration and printing should be done in
Prof Akumfi
said," for the purposes of capacity building in book development, at least
70 per cent of all textbook writing teams would comprise Ghanaian
nationals". Prof Ameyaw-Akumfi said this in a speech
read for him, by Mrs Agnes Ofosua Vandyck,
Executive Director of Ghana Book Development Council (GBDC), at a three-day
workshop for indigenous printers and publishers of textbooks on education in
The GBDC organised the workshop
for 40 participants to strengthen their capacity to enable them to undertake
meaningfully, the MOE's textbook production
programme. The workshop, which follows the approval of a draft textbook development
and distribution policy by Cabinet for textbook procurement last year is also to prepare publishers for both national and
international tenders.
The Ministry, he said, was
working on a process to procure funds amounting to $70 million for the purchase
of textbooks procured for distribution to schools on a ratio of 1:1 a pupil.
Prof Ameyaw
Akumfi said the GBDC had been mandated to conduct a
survey on capacity of publishers and printers, who were the key players in the
book production process.
He said government needed financial
assistance, considering the amount involved in the project and the Ministry,
therefore, had to satisfy the funding agencies of the capacity of the book
industry to deliver on quality and within schedule.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 04 March 2003-
Edward Dua Agyeman, Auditor-General, on Monday told
an Accra Fast Track High Court that he requested for a Special Audit Report on
the Trade and Investment Programme (TIP).
He explained that based on some
discoveries that came up during the auditing of TIP's
activities by Baffour Awuah
Associates, he requested a Special Audit Report. Dua
Agyeman made this known when he was answering questions under cross-examination
in a case in which two former Ministers of State have been charge for wilfully
causing a total loss of 2.73 billion cedis to the State.
The two, who were standing
trial, were: Daniel Kwasi Abodakpi,
former Minister for Trade and Industry and Victor Selormey
former Deputy Minister for Finance. They had pleaded not guilty to seven counts
of conspiracy to commit crime, defrauding by false pretences and wilfully
causing financial loss to the State.
They are currently on
self-recognisance bail in the sum of ¢3 billion each by the court presided over
by Stephen T. Farkye, an Appeal Court judge, who is
sitting as an additional High Court Judge.
Dua Agyeman said he offered a
letter of appointment to Baffour Awuah
Associates to commence auditing TIP upon a request by the government into TIP's activities. He said the letter of appointment to Baffour Awuah and Associates
indicated that they were to produce a status, a draft and final report.
Dua Agyeman stated that his Office
gave out the terms of reference to the Auditors. Thereafter, Mr Hayibor sought to tender a letter, which was emanating from
the Office of the National Security Council and copied to the Director of Special
Duties at the Ministry of Finance, which was in the file of TIP.
Dua Agyeman said he did not have
any knowledge about it since it was copied to the MOF. Anthony Gyambiby, Principal State Attorney, objected to the letter
being tendered through the Prosecution Witness saying the witness did not have
any knowledge about it since it was not copied to him and it was not in his custody.
Hayibor stated that Prosecution's objection
was misconceived since the letter was in the file of TIP, which was produced by
Dua Agyeman. The court overruled the defence saying he
(defence) did not lay proper foundation before tendering the letter. The court
added that Witness did not have any knowledge about the letter that was copied
to the MOF and National
Security and rejected it.
When it was the turn of Barima Manu, Counsel of Selormey
to cross-examine the Witness, he again brought up the letter but the Prosecution
objected to it saying the Court had earlier rejected and it was, therefore, of
no need for him to bring it up again.
Johnny Qurshie-Idun,
Leading Counsel for Selormey, said the court rejected
the letter because Hayibor did not lay proper
foundation but that only applied to the Abodakpi's
case.
"The first accused person's
case was different," he added. Manu ended his cross-examination and Dua Agyeman and the court discharged him. The case was
adjourned to 17 March.
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