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Ghana: Alleged Case of Bias Against Justice Abban
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Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July 2008
Ivy Benson
An Accra Fast Track High Court presided over by Justice Ofori-Attah, has given the jailed former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata the leeway to move his application of bias he made against Justice Henrietta Abban despite opposition from the Attorney General.
The court has scheduled today, July 18, 2008, for the application to be moved and by which time the Attorney General would have responded to the issues raised in the mini-trial requested by the applicant.
A senior state attorney, Mrs. Evelyn Keelson had raised a preliminary objection to the motion, which Mr. Tsikata was seeking to move again before the court, two days after the court had upheld the attorney General's request for a stay of proceedings, since similar request was being made before the Supreme Court.
According to Mrs. Keelson, the motion that Mr. Tsikata sought to move before the FTC was flawed because the basis of the request does not exist, stressing that the law does not allow for just an amendment to be effected on an affidavit of a previously filed application.
The Senior State Attorney further argued that no such amendment had been done in order for the request to be heard by the court, thereby calling on the applicant to "come properly before the Supreme Court", for the court to grant his request to amend his statement.
"Nothing has changed to allow the court to change from its previous ruling," Mrs. Keelsom argued.
In his response, Mr. Tsikata noted that the submission made by the Senior State Attorney was not a preliminary objection but a response to his request.
According to him, the case before the Supreme Court was a ground sought and not the reliefs, adding that the comments made by the Senior State Attorney was a "complete misunderstanding."
In an affidavit filed on July 16, 2008, by the former GNPC boss, he noted that he had effected an amendment to the request made before the Supreme Court to delete the accusation of bias against the trail judge, Justice Henrietta Abban.
Mr. Tsikata further noted that by amending his grounds before the Supreme Court and doing away with the bias made against the trial judge, it clears the way for his request of the mini-trial to commence so as for the issue of bias to be determined by the court.
The applicant was of the view that Justice Abban was biased towards him in failing to appreciate the application filed to adduce fresh evidence from the International Financial Corporation to enable the court make an informed judgment on the issues before it.
According to Mr. Tsikata, Justice Abban ignored a written permission of his counsel to travel out of the jurisdiction and threw out the application for lack of prosecution and went ahead to pronounce judgment on the case, thereby convicting him for 5 years imprisonment.
Tsikata noted that in view of the conduct of the trial Judge, she should be prevented from sitting on his bail application that he had filed, since Justice Abban would be biased in handling an issue placed before her for adjudication.
Tsikata was convicted after six years of trial for five years imprisonment on three counts of causing financial loss to the state and one count of intentionally misapplying public property by guaranteeing a loan of 5.5 million French Francs from Caisse Francaise de Developement, a French company, to Valley Farms, a limited liability company.
He was further accused of using a total amount of ¢20million ((old cedis) belonging to GNPC to acquire shares in the French company, when he was in office.
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It was the case of the prosecution that Valley Farms, subsequently defaulted in the payment of the loan as a result of which GNPC settled the debt, when it was requested to do so.
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