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General News of Monday, 11 March 2002

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Tsatsu Denies "Escaping Prosecution" Allegation

The former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation has rejected suggestions that he is clutching at legal technicalities to escape prosecution.

Mr. Tsikata has within a space of two weeks won two crucial legal battles against the government.

The first was when he successfully challenged the constitutionality of fast track courts and the second was a ruling by a High Court in Accra that charges of wilfully causing financial loss to the state brought against him were unconstitutional.

Deputy Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo, describes Mr. Tsikata's legal victories as an attempt to escape punishment for allegedly mismanaging the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation.

Speaking on JOYFM's Super Morning Show, Tsikata said he was only standing up for his rights, and encouraged all Ghanaians to do so.

He described as sad, the claims by the deputy attorney general that, he was only dabbling in technicalities. According to him, issues that border on people's rights, and which are explicitly guaranteed in the constitution cannot be described as technicalities.

Mr. Tsikata, who is a former law lecturer at Ghana's foremost university- the University of Ghana, said officials of the Attorney General's Department should have done their homework properly before putting him before court.