MEMBER OF PARLIMANET JAILED 10 YEARS

THE 52-month-long trial of former Trade and Industry Minister, Dan Abodakpi, ended at the Accra Fast Track High Court on Monday with a 10-year jail term with hard labour for the man who is also the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta.
He was convicted on all seven counts of conspiracy, defrauding by false pretences and wilfully causing financial loss of $400,000 to the state.
During the 50-minute judgement, Abodakpi, in a white linen long-sleeved shirt remained calm, tapping his left foot until the first bombshell when he was pronounced guilty on the first three counts of conspiracy. There was a visible change in his countenance from then on.
But the judgement was not delivered without some incidents. First, it was the judge, Mr Justice S. T. Farkye, a Court of Appeal judge with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, who took a brief exit to his chambers just two minutes into delivering the judgement and came back to continue.
After the sentence had been pronounced, counsel for Abodakpi, Mr Charles Hayibor, challenged the judge for not hearing him before pronouncing the sentence.
According to counsel, he would have pleaded for the mitigation of the sentence but the judge asked him whether that was part of the rules.
Counsel replied angrily that his client would serve the sentence.
After the court had risen, some Abodakpi sympathisers, including about 20 MPs, none of whom ever appeared in the course of the trial except yesterday, rather hailed him as a hero.
They cast aspersions that the sentence was politically motivated.
Others too could not control their anguish and broke down in tears.
An inefficient aspect of our law enforcement also manifested in the courtroom. Several minutes after the court had risen, there was no policemen to take custody of the convict.
Two policemen present could not be of any assistance and a special offer was made to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to dispatch some personnel to the court premises. They were later joined by other uniformed men.
Abodakpi was said to have, between May and December 2000, acted, together with the late Victor Selormey, who was also a former Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Frederick Boadu, a consultant, and other persons with a common purpose, to wilfully cause financial loss of $400,000 to the state through the Trade and Investment Programme (TIP).
The amount was in respect of a feasibility study for the establishment of a Science and Technology Community Park/Valley Project which was meant to enhance the export of non-traditional products.
They were charged with causing the transfer of the cedi equivalent of $400,000 during their tenure of office in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration when they co-chaired the TIP.
The former ministers were accused of causing the transfer from the TIP interest account lodged with ECOBANK Ghana Limited into the personal account of the project consultant, Dr Frederick Boadu.
They were arraigned on October 14, 2002 on three counts of conspiracy, two counts of defrauding and two counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state but both of them pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted a self-recognisance bail.
Selormey, however, died in the course of the trial.
According to the prosecution, the $400,000 was part of a grant provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to the government of Ghana to develop and promote the export of non-traditional exports
The prosecution said Abodakpi and Selormey took advantage of their positions and transferred into the account of Dr Boadu of Leebda Corporation in the US the cedi equivalent of $400,000 for a feasibility study into the project but no such study was conducted.
On the charge of conspiracy, the court held that Abodakpi entered into a contract with Dr Boadu but it was evident that it was Selormey who wrote to ECOBANK to pay Dr Boadu the $400,000 from the accrued interest of the TIP account.
According to the court, upon the instructions of Abodakpi that he was satisfied with the final report of the study conducted by Dr Boadu, Selormey wrote two letters to ECOBANK authorising the payment.
“Notably, Selormey authorised the payments and interestingly copies of the letters were sent to Abodakpi, who said in his evidence-in-chief that he did not receive those letters,” the court held.
The court said a letter written by Dr Boadu to Abodakpi asking for the payments was entered in the ministry’s log book but those sent by Selormey were not entered.
It held that the prosecution was able to establish that Abodakpi intentionally falsified documents to facilitate the act of fraud and consequently convicted him for that.
The state, the court said, incurred loss as a result of the activities of Abodakpi and Selormey and because Abodakpi wrote to Selormey to authorise the final payments, it was accepted by the court that he received Selormey’s letters.
Selormey, the court said, falsely represented to ECOBANK that a feasibility study had been conducted by Dr Boadu, for which an amount of $400,000 was paid to him.
It said the prosecution led evidence to show that Dr Boadu did not conduct any feasibility study into the Science and Technology Project and that the payment of $400,000 to him constituted a financial loss to the state, since the money was part of the Consolidated Fund.
Some people who were in court described the sentence as a precedent because the judge never said anything about the case put up by the defence.
According to them, the judge, in a characteristic display, did not say anything about the defence but saw the prosecution’s word as the gospel truth.
Some declined to be named but Dr Benjamin Kumbour, the MP for Lawra-Nandom and Ranking Member of the NDC, described as puzzling the judge’s statement that he was not compelled by any law to allow the defence counsel to raise issues about mitigation.
He noted that normally pleas of mitigation were allowed, explaining that for the judge to have behaved that way was unfortunate.
“Those of us who are committed to the rule of law are surprised because today has been the darkest day in the history of our country and Africa because the courts will no more be the bastion where the weak can seek justice,” he said.