COURT TO HEAR NANA KONADU CASE IN DECEMBER

05/12/07

Story: Stephen Sah
THE Accra Fast Track High Court yesterday fixed December 18, 2007 to give its ruling on the application for stay of proceedings in the case in which Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and two others are standing trial for allegedly causing financial loss to the state.
The court fixed the date after it had listened to a brief response on points of law made by Mr Tony Lither, counsel for the accused persons.
Counsel had, on November 15, 2007, prayed the court to stay proceedings in the matter because of a civil suit pending on the same matter or in the interim dismiss the case and stated that the criminal proceedings brought against his clients amounted to an abuse of power by the Attorney-General.
Nana Konadu, Sherry Ayittey, the Managing Director of Caridem Development Company Limited (CDCL), and Caridem as an entity filed the application for permanent stay of proceedings because the subject matter for which they were standing trial was being contested in another court in a civil suit brought against the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) and the Attorney-General by CDCL over the take-over of the GIHOC Nsawam Cannery.
Also standing trial alongside the applicants are Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo, a former Executive Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), and Kwame Peprah, a former Minister of Finance and former Chairman of the DIC.
They are facing various charges of conspiracy, causing financial loss to public property, conspiracy to obtain public property by false statement, obtaining public property by false statement and altering forged document.
They have denied the offences and have been admitted to self-recognisance bail.
The accused persons were alleged to have caused losses running into billions of cedis to public property in 1995 following the divestiture of the GIHOC Cannery at Nsawam, a government cannery, which was acquired by CDCL, which was owned by the 31st December Women’s Movement (DWM).
Mr Lithur said the court had power to question the activities of the Executive, of which the Attorney-General was part, and if that was not done, it would place the Attorney-General above the Constitution of the land.
He said the residual power of the Supreme Court was superior to any legislation and for that reason if the court did not accept what the Attorney-General was doing, then it meant the Executive could not be checked.
The Attorney-General, Mr Joe Ghartey, had described the application as unmeritorious because it was totally unknown in criminal law and the Constitution.
He said the institution of criminal action against the five was based on the Auditor-General's report on the malfeasance they committed in the acquisition of the GIHOC/Nsawam Cannery.
He said the effect of the application was to interfere with the powers of the Attorney-General in Article 88 of the Constitution.
Nana Konadu was accompanied to court by his husband, ex-President Rawlings.
Attendance by sympathisers of the former first lady was unprecedented, as the large crowd treated themselves to brass band music on the court premises.
They carried large National Democratic Congress (NDC) flags and mobbed the former President and it took his security a hectic time to control the enthusiastic crowd.