AG to reply Tsatsu

Accra, July 17, GNA- An Accra Fast Track High Court (FTHC), on Thursday adjourned proceedings to Friday to allow the Attorney-General (AG) to file an affidavit in response to a motion by Tsatsu Tsikata, the incarcerated former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

Tsikata had gone to the Court to move a motion, which, he said, was an amendment to the previous statement of bias against Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban, the trial judge who jailed him. The former boss of GNPC was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for wilfully causing financial loss to the State and misapplying public property.

Mrs Evelyn Keelson, Assistant State Attorney, in her preliminary objection stated that the motion of Mr Tsikata was flawed and should not be entertained by the court.

She said though the applicant had come back to the court to say that he had amended a section of his affidavit it did not automatically constitute the amendment of a similar motion before the Supreme Court. She insisted that no amendment had been done at the Supreme Court so the court could not rely on that to allow the applicant to move the motion.

Mrs Keelson also said the court in its previous ruling upheld the Attorney-General's application to stay proceedings pending the determination of an application filed at the Supreme Court. "My lord the applicant should not be allowed to move this motion," she said.

Mr Tsikata in his submission said the case before the Supreme Court did not have the same relief as the one before Fast Track High Court. He said there was a very elementary basic difference between the relief being sought from the court and the grounds of his appeal. Mr Tsikata said there was complete misunderstanding of the two applications before the courts.

The former GNPC boss was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for wilfully causing financial loss to the State and misapplying public property. The sentences will run concurrently.

Tsikata was charged with three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢ 230,000 (2.3 billion old Ghana cedis) to the State through a loan he, on behalf of GNPC, guaranteed for Valley Farms, a private company, and another count of misapplying public property. He is said to have intentionally misapplied GH¢ 2,000 (20 million cedis) to acquire shares in Valley Farms.

Valley Farm contracted the loan from Caisse Centrale, now Agence Fran=E7aise de D=E9veloppement (ADF), but defaulted in the payment, compelling GNPC as the guarantors, to pay the loan in 1996.