An Accra High Court presided over by His Lordship Justice Henry Kwofie has adjourned the case involving former SSNIT boss, Ernest Thompson and four others, to 14th December, 2018, after lawyers claimed they had not been served with documents that the prosecution intends to rely on during the trial.
According to the  State Prosecutor, Mrs. Yvonne Attakora Obuobisa, the prosecution in compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling on extensive pre-trial disclosure in summary trials, filed on the 24th of September, 2018, all relevant documents at the Registry of the Court, to be served on the Accused persons.
Mrs. Attakora Obuobisa said that a total of 127 documents and pendrives containing additional documents for each Accused person, were filed at the registry.
Counsel for the Accused persons lamented that they had not been served.
Counsel for Mr. Ernest Thompson, who is the first Accused in this case, said that at the last adjourned date, it was agreed on that the Prosecution would notify the Defence Counsel, after filing the documents at the registry, but the Prosecution did not do so.
Counsel for Madam Juliet Hassana Kramer, the third Accused in this case also indicated that the Supreme Court’s order in relation to pre-trial disclosures, ordered that Accused persons be given sufficient time to prepare their defence. He lamented that from the last adjourned date in July, it took the Prosecution two months to file the documents which he described as voluminous.
The Court, according to the Judge, had none of the documents filed in its docket by the Registry.
Counsel for the Accused persons indicated that they will need not less than 3 months to go through the documents filed by the prosecution.
The judge has adjourned the case to the 14th of December, 2018, on which date it will be ascertained, how far Counsel would have gone with the documents.
Counsel for the fourth Accused person, Caleb Afogli, prayed for a date to move a motion he has filed, and the Court has scheduled 2nd November,2018, for the motion to be moved.
The former SSNIT boss and four others, have been arraigned before the Criminal Division of the High Court, in relation to the award of a $72 million Operating Business Suite (OBS) contract, which is alleged to be fraudulent.
The Accused persons are facing a total of 29 charges.
Source: GhanaJustice/F.Kyeremateng
