Konadu's application thrown out

… And AG withdraws charges against three accused persons

AN ATTEMPT to get the Fast Track High Court (FTC) trying the Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, and eight others for causing financial loss to the state, to halt proceedings pending the determination of another civil suit connected to the criminal suit, has been scuttled.

The FTC presided over by Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, yesterday dismissed the application filed by four of the accused persons, including Mrs. Rawlings, as unnecessary, further affirming that the Attorney General (AG) should be allowed to exercise the powers granted him under the constitution, such as the power to prosecute.

Meanwhile, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Joe Ghartey, in pursuant to Section 59 Act (30) of the Criminal Procedure Code had withdrawn all the charges against three out of the nine accused persons and the court had accordingly discharged them.

Those discharged from the charges of causing financial loss to a public property include Georgina Okaiteye, Director/General Manager of Caridem (6th accused), George Mould, Director of Caridem (7th accused) and Larry Adjetey, Director/Secretary of Caridem (8th accused).

Throwing out the former First Lady’s application, the FTC noted that arguments advanced by counsel for the applicants, Mr. Tony Lithur, were “premature and wholly unnecessary”.

The court further described as a political statement arguments put forward by applicants’ counsel, saying “it is really very unfortunate” for it to be said before a court of law.

According to the Court, the power to prosecute should be separated from the power to adjudicate; the two should never be confused.

“The court or for that matter the judiciary is above partisan politics and parties who appear before it, like the applicants, should appreciate this and divorce the judiciary from partisanship,” the court emphasized.

Additionally, the court asserted, “Laws are made for the people and for the advancement of society. But one thing the court must not do is to pander to the whims of any individual or group of individuals operating under the guise of the public. The courts are above partisan politics and the courts’ duty is not to, as it were, balance the equation or take a middle course to avoid offending any public. The courts’ duty is to do justice to all manner of persons without fear or favour, affection or ill will. And if in the dispensation of justice one public feels a sense of loss of confidence, then so be it.”

In conclusion, the court was of the view that the case under trial should not be a focus for the comment “abused of judicial process” as canvassed by counsel for the applicant.

It was the case of the applicant that Caridem Development Company Limited (9th accused) has initiated civil action against the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) and the AG, and there is the possibility of making some pronouncement that would differ from that of the criminal court. This, in applicants’ view, was a misuse of state machinery to the detriment of the accused persons since the motive behind the action taken by the Attorney-General was in bad faith.

Calling for the dismissal of the applicants’ request, the AG had argued that the authority to institute criminal proceedings had been done vested in him with due process of the law and in respect for the rights of the accused persons, barring any ill-feeling or malice. He therefore asserted that the civil case between Caridem and the DIC did not in any way restrict the AG’s duty in instituting the criminal proceedings.

Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings had been charged together with eight others for causing financial loss to a public property running into billions of cedis.

Co-accused persons include Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo, former Executive Secretary at the DIC, Thomas Benson Owusu, former Accountant, DIC, and Kwame Peprah, former Minister of Finance and former Chairman, DIC.

The rest are Sherry Ayittey, Managing Director of Caridem, Georgina Okaiteye, Director/General Manager of Caridem, George Mould, Director of Caridem, Larry Adjetey, Director/Secretary of Caridem, and Caridem Development Company Limited.

The accused persons are facing thirty counts of conspiracy and causing financial loss to public property running into billions of cedis in the acquisition of GIHOC Nsawam Cannery – a government enterprise and producer of canned foods, which was divested in 1995 during the administration of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

They have pleaded not guilty to all the charges and are on self-recognisance bail.

The accused persons are alleged to have failed in the completion of interest payments accrued to the purchase price in the acquisition of GIHOC Nsawam Cannery.