A SUPREME Court Judge has ruled that an alleged contemptuous comment by Mr Kweku Baako Jnr, Editor-in-chief of the Crusading Guide on the Quality Grain case being investigated by the Attorney-General’s Department for action.

The Judge Mr. Justice Kwame Afreh, sitting as an additional High Court Judge at the Fast Track Court yesterday advised media practitioners and the general public to be circumspect in commenting on the Quality Grain case.

He, however, assured that in spite of all the comments passed on the case, he would give a judgement that is fair and just.

Earlier, leading defence counsel in the case, Mr Kweku Baah, had prayed the court to subpoena Mr Baako to the court to clarify his comment on a GBC Television morning programme that he has evidence that two or three of the accused persons in the trial, shall be jailed.

Under cross-examination from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mr Osafo Sampong, Dr George Yankey, told the court that he has never caused any financial loss to the state.

Dr Yankey who is the former director at the Legal Department of the Ministry of Finance, disagreed with a suggestion from the DPP that he conspired with the other accused persons to cause financial loss to the state in connection with the Aveyime rice project.

Dr Yankey explained that he rather assisted the state by transferring his personal money of over $6,000 for the project which was almost at a standstill to take off.

He wondered whether such a gesture is a crime.

DPP: Dr Yankey, between 1996 and 1997 you caused a financial loss of $6,196,330 to the state. Dr Yankey: It is not true comment.

DPP: Dr Yankey, together with Kwame Peprah and Samuel Dapaah, in 1998, you caused a loss of $3 million to the state.

Dr Yankey: It is a falsehood, and not true.

On trial with Dr Yankey are Ibrahim Adam, former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Samuel Dapaah, former Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Mr Richard Kwame Peprah, former Minister of Finance and Nana Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff at the Castle, Osu.

At the centre of the case, though not indicted in Ghana, is the Chief Executive of the Quality Grain Company Ghana Limited, Mrs. Juliet Cotton (Miss R. Woodard).

She is connected with some alleged fraud scandals in the United States of America (USA). She has appeared before a Guinnet Court in Atlanta, US, and found guilty, but the sentence is suspended until August 29, 2002.

According to reports received here from the US recently, her upcoming sentencing derives from a jury conviction in Atlanta, on June 17, 2002, on 35 counts of bank fraud, money laundering and making false statements.

Investigations conducted revealed that a company, Agri-Tech, which was said to have supplied agricultural machinery to the Aveyime Rice Project in the Volta region, worth $12 million, never existed.