High Court erred in convicting Mallam Isa

Mr. Ambrose Derry, leading counsel for convicted ex-Minister of Youth and Sports, Mallam Aliu Yusuf Isa, yesterday told the Court of Appeal that the Fast Track High Court erred in law in convicting Mallam Isa on circumstantial evidence.

Mr. Derry, who was arguing the appeal against the four-year incarceration of his client submitted that there was reasonable grounds to conclude that the prosecution witnesses fabricated their evidence to get the appellant jailed.

Counsel told the court, which was composed of Justice K. Omari Sasu, Sulley Gbadegbe and Mrs. Justine Sophia Adinyinra, that the trial judge erred in law when he decided that the circumstantial evidence which was adduced by the prosecution led irresistibly to the guilt of Mallam Isa.

He told the court that the circumstantial evidence by the prosecution based on which the trial judge convicted the appellant does not lead to just one conclusion.

Mr. Derry explained that the prosecution witnesses from the Ministry of Youth and Sports were aggrieved by the vigilance and anti-corruption stance of the accused as a former Minister of Youth and Sports.

He told the court that there is copious evidence to support rational inferences that the appellant was set up by the prosecution witness and that the said $46,000 got lost in transit.

Counsel told the court there was no direct evidence that shows that the $46,000 was removed from the appellant's suitcase.

Derry submitted that evidence of the two prosecution witnesses, Mr. Alex Asante, Protocol Officer and Mr. Worlanyo Agrah, former Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), to the effect that the money was removed from the green suitcase before it was taken to the Airport was presumptuous.

He said that the two prosecution witnesses said that a black polythene bag was removed from the suitcase.

Under cross-examination they had admitted that they did not know whether that black polythene bag contained the $46,000. Counsel told the court that it was the burden of the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant stole the money but they had failed to establish it.

Counsel told the court that the $46,000 was in a brown envelope and not a black polythene bag as the prosecution claims.

He also said that the audit report, which was found in Mallam Isa's house, was the original report and not a copy as the prosecution had sought to establish.

Derry further submitted that when Agrah met officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports at a meeting he failed to tell them that the $46,000 was removed from the suitcase before it was taken to the Airport.

He, therefore, argued that the circumstantial evidence based on which Mallam Isa was jailed was a miscarriage of justice.

Arguing his second ground of appeal, Derry said that the conviction of the accused for causing financial loss to the state could not be supported by evidence.

He, therefore, told the court that the trial judge erred in law when he held that there was direct evidence that the appellant dishonestly appropriated the $46,000.

The case has been adjourned to October 15, when the defence team and the prosecution are to submit their written arguments in the case.