Justice Eric Kyei Baffour the judge sitting on the case of some former Board Members of National Communications Authority (NCA), and a businessman accused of causing financial loss to the state has cautioned defence lawyers to be serious in their Defence.

“In your defence of the accused persons, I’ll urge you to be serious with everything in terms of applications filed,” Justice Kyei Baffuor said in Court Tuesday in a clear case of his disapproval of turn of events in Court.

The statement comes at the back of another fresh application for stay of proceedings filed by lawyer for Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, a former Board Chairman of the NCA, which was dismissed by the court.

The lawyer had filed the fresh application praying the court to stay its proceedings pending an appeal of its ruling on a submission of no case filed by the lawyer.

The other lawyers also filed similar applications urging the trial court to stay its proceedings pending the appeal of certain aspects of the rulings but all of those applications were dismissed by Justice Kyei Baffuor.

The four former board members then proceeded to the Court of Appeal for an order on the trial court to stay its proceedings.

Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie’s application at the Court of Appeal was in respect of an appeal against the trial judge’s admission of three of his police caution statements in which he allegedly confessed that all the accused persons had benefitted ‘financially’ in the purchase of the Pegasus equipment for counterterrorism assignments.

The Court of Appeal, however, dismissed all the applications seeking to stay the proceedings and they were asked to return to the High Court to open their defence as had earlier been ordered by the trial court.

Abu Juan, lawyer for Mr Baffoe-Bonnie, then filed another stay of proceedings pending the determination of his appeal in respect of the submission of no case.

Moving the motion, he said the appeal raised serious legal issues and has a chance of success.

He added that the pace at which the proceedings at the trial court are moving is such that if the proceedings of the court are not stayed and the appeal is determined in favour of his client, it will have a direct effect on all the proceedings before the determination of the appeal.

The judge dismissed the application describing it as “a manifest attempt to delay the trial and an abuse of the court processes.”

The judge then ordered Mr Baffoe-Bonnie to open his defence but his lawyer stated that they are entitled to a seven-day automatic stay to exercise their ‘rights’.

The court granted the request and subsequently called on Mathew Tetteh-Tevie to open his defence but his lawyer also told the court that he would need time to prepare his client.

Justice Kyei Barfuor then ordered Mr Tetteh-Tevie to prepare to open his defence today Thursday, July 4, 2019.

He also ordered the other accused persons to be prepared to open their defence in case Mr Tetteh-Tevie fails to do so to avoid another needless adjournment.

In March this year, it would be recalled that the Court admitted into evidence the Police caution statement of Mr Baffoe-Bonnie.

The ex-Board Chairman, in the police caution statement, nicknamed ‘CONCESSION STATEMENT’ which necessitated a mini-trial, claimed the accused persons ‘benefited financially.’

The ‘confession statement’ became a bone of contention between his lawyers and the State in the trial of the former NCA Board members.

The $4 million, according to the prosecution, was meant for the purchase of the Pegasus equipment for counter-terrorism, and the statement, which was read by the Detective Chief Inspector Michael Nkrumah in court, showed how the accused persons allegedly shared the money.

The court, presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffuor, after the mini trial, admitted the three further caution statements of Baffoe-Bonnie as evidence in the trial.