General News of Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Source: GNA

AG's Dept Denies Minister Refusing To Prosecute Cases

The Prosecutions Division of the Attorney-General’s Department has denied that the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Martin Amidu, has refused to prosecute many cases submitted to him in court.

The Consultant at the Prosecutions Division, Ms Gertrude G. Aikins, said in reaction to questions by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that “none of the dockets is ready for prosecution as we speak so they could not have been submitted to you to be gathering dust on your table”.

Citing the case of the murder of Mr Roko Frimpong, Deputy Managing Director of Ghana Commercial Bank, Ms Aikins said the committal proceeding in the case had been done.

She said the prosecutor was yet to interview witnesses for the trial to commence at the current criminal session.

Ms Aikins said the Prosecutions Division had received the docket of a case involving Mr Boakye Agyarko and was working on it.

“The advice is yet to be completed and forwarded to the Police for the suspect to be charged. It is only after this that the case would be matured and ready for prosecution,” she said.

On the murder case involving Corporal Ebenezer Owusu at the Ho Residency, she said the case docket had just been received at the Division.

"We have written to the Police for the postmortem report. It is only on receipt of the said report that the Bill of Indictment and Summary of Evidence could be prepared for the initiation of the trial."

Ms Aikins said the Prosecutions Division was yet to receive dockets on the cases of the alleged dissipation of 1.5 billion old cedis of Petroleum Recovery Levy Debt and the Calf Cocoa Vrs Attorney-General.

She said the Division was also yet to receive “a single” case docket on the case of Sheila Sackey, who was the alleged Head of the Presidential Estates under former President John Agyekum Kufuor.

“It is possible the Police may be prosecuting some of them but not even a single case docket has been received on her in the Office,” Ms Aikins said.