Witness Disappears; Sherry Ayittey’s Case Adjourned

An Accra Fast Track Court trying four persons for alleged bribery in connection with the divestiture of the Ghana Rubber Estate Limited has adjourned proceedings to October. The adjournment was made after the court was informed that the second prosecution witness in the case could not be reached to appear and continue with his cross-examination. The Director of Public Prosecutions, Osafo Sampong had attempted to substitute the witness – Etienne Marie Arthur-Popeler former MD of GREL with another witness but counsel for Sherry objected to this.

Sherry Ayittey, finance director of the 31st December Women’s movement; E. A. Agbodo, former Chief Executive of the DIC, Ralph Casely- Hayford, a businessman and Sati Ocran, a housewife are accused of allegedly assisting a French company, to win the bid for GREL(quote)s divestiture by taking various sums as bribes. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charge, and are on self-recognisance bail.

Counsel for Sherry Ayittey was due to continue his cross examination of the second prosecution witness, and in his submission to the court, he strongly objected to the Mr. Osafo Sampong’s request to introduce another witness.

According to him, substituting Mr Arthur-Popeler would naturally put the prosecution at an advantage in order to offset the line of cross-examination. Counsel for the other accused persons, associated themselves with the objection and prayed the court not to entertain the DPP's suggestion, since by so doing, the court might be faced with a situation where two prosecution witnesses may be under cross examination simultaneously.