General News of Wednesday, 26 March 2003

Source: .

Tsikata's Case Adjourned To Friday

An Accra Fast Track Court (FTC) today adjourned proceedings in the case involving Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), to Friday March 28 following a power failure at the court.

Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban, Appeal Court Judge with an additional responsibility as a High Court Judge, announced the adjournment because the electronic recordings gadgets at the court could not function. She said due to the power failure, we have to adjourn the case as both the Prosecution and the Defence teams would have to bear with the situation. Mrs Justice Abban at the court's last sitting adjourned the case to Wednesday to enable her to rule on a submission of "no case" by counsel for Tsikata, which the Prosecution replied.

The former Chief Executive is standing trial for causing financial loss to the state. He is alleged to have caused the loss of 2.3 billion cedis to the state during his term of office. Tsikata is charged with four counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state and intentionally misapplying public property. He has denied the charges and the court, has admitted him to a 700 million-cedis self-recognisance bail.