Motion to stop judge from hearing Tsatsu's bail application adjourned

Accra, July 3, GNA - A motion on notice which seeks to disqualify Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban, a Court of Appeal judge, from hearing the bail application filed by Tsatsu Tsikata was on Thursday adjourned to July 10.

This was after Mr. Gyimah Boadi, Registrar of the Fast Track High Court, announced to the packed court that the trial judge who was to hear the motion was indisposed.

When lawyers asked who the trial judge was, it turned out to be Mrs

Justice Abban. Mr Boadi explained that Mrs Abban was indisposed and was on June 30

given two weeks excuse duty to resume on July 9.

Tsikata, who represented himself, stated that his motion was a new one and wondered why it should be put before a judge who was indisposed. Tsikata, in the midst of other counsel who were in court in solidarity with him, asked the Registrar who gave him the instructions and what happened if the trial judge could not recover on the date fixed. He, however, declined to mention who instructed him. Meanwhile, Mr Fui Tsikata, brother of Tsatsu, who spoke to the press after the court processes questioned why the trial Judge (Mrs. Abban) should be the judge assigned to hear the motion. He said the motion should have been put before "someone else because Mrs Abban had shown so much bias".

Mr Fui Tsikata said they had quoted the relevant portions of the law which stated that the trial judge could not hear her own case, adding that, Tsatsu had filed another petition to the Chief Justice on the matter. He further accused the Police of planting one Prosper Tsikata to infiltrate their ranks through to the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons. He admitted one of their cousins was known as Prosper Tsikata but stressed that the fake one was going round defrauding many people.

Mr Fui Tsikata stated that the said Prosper Tsikata had visited Tsatsu at the Nsawam Prisons acting as a relative although "he is not a relative".