Quality Grain Application Dismissed

The Fast Track Court (FTC) trying six persons, including two former Cabinet Ministers, in the Quality Grain scandal on Thursday dismissed applications by two defence counsel objecting to the charges against all the accused persons.

The court presided over by Mr Justice Kwame Afreh, Appeal Court Judge but sitting as an additional High Court Judge, described the applications as "frivolous and without merit" and ordered that the case should proceed on Monday, July two.

The accused persons are Ibrahim Adam and Kwame Peprah, former Ministers of Agriculture and Finance, respectively, in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

The rest are Dr Samuel Dapaah, Dr George Yankey, Nana Ato Dzadzie and Kwesi Ahwoi, all senior public officers in the former government. They have all pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and wilfully causing financial loss to the State. Each has been granted self-recognisance bail.

On June 11, Mr Kwaku Baah, counsel for Peprah argued that the NDC has filed a writ at the Supreme Court challenging the charges against the accused persons as being unconstitutional. He said the FTC must, therefore, stay proceedings until the determination of the matter.

Nana Adjei Ampofo counsel for Nana Dzadzie objected to the conspiracy charge against his client on the grounds that the facts of the case by the Attorney-General (AG) did not indicate any conspiracy act.

Giving reasons for the ruling, Mr Justice Afreh said the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which filed the writ, was not charged before the FTC and none of the accused persons had objected to the charges.

He said the argument that the accused persons performed their duties according to directives by the Executive did not hold and should not be a ground for the court to grant the application.

Mr Justice Afreh quoted legal authorities to buttress his ruling that a lower court was not obliged to refer a matter to a higher court if, in its view, an objection raised against a matter before it had no merit.

He said the FTC agreed with Mr Baah that it had to use its discretion in granting the application considering the circumstances under which the accused persons performed their duties.

Mr Justice Afreh, however, said in doing so, the court must be guided by the rule of law and exercise its discretion not on compassion or special circumstances.

On the conspiracy charge, the court said it was premature for counsel to raise an objection since the prosecution had not closed its case. He advised counsel to renew the application at the end of the prosecution's case if no evidence had been tendered against his client.