Accra, May 8, GNA - An Accra Fast Track Court on Tuesday adjourned to May 28 the trial of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, a former First Lady and five others for their alleged involvement in wilfully causing financial loss to the state in the divestiture of the GIHOC Cannery at Nsawam.

A court clerk, who announced the adjournment to the prosecution and defence teams and court correspondents, said the trial judge Mr. Justice P. Baffoe-Bonnie was indisposed.

The other five accused persons are Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo, a former Executive Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), Thomas Benson Owusu, a former Accountant of the DIC, Kwame Peprah, a former Minister of Finance and former Chairman of the DIC, Sherry Ayittey, Managing Director of Caridem Development Company Limited and Caridem as an entity. They are variously charged with 30 counts of conspiracy, causing financial loss to public property, conspiracy to obtain public property by false statement and obtaining public property by false statement. They have all denied the offences and have been admitted to self-recognisance bail.

The accused persons were alleged to have caused loss to public property running into billions of cedis, following the acquisition in 1995 of the state-owned GIHOC Cannery by Caridem Development Company Limited, which was owned by the 31st December Women's Movement (DWM).

The prosecution has stated that the accused persons failed to complete interest payment which accrued on the purchase price of the cannery thereby causing financial loss to the state.