Fast Track Court queue growing

The Fast Track Court (FTC) is back with a vengeance after being halted in its tracks and stalled for a six-month litigation that stretched into the legal vacation, which ended only last week.

With the return of the FTC seems to have been a renewed steel determination by Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Nana Akufu Addo to reverse setbacks suffered by the government in its pursuit of zero tolerance for corruption.

There could not have been a better demonstration of this resolve than the dispatch with which cases of alleged corruption by former Ministers of State and officials of the former NDC government are being prosecuted in the FTCs.

The Statesman investigations at the FTC shows that former Interior Minister, Nii Okaidja Adamafio and former IGP Peter Nanfuri are billed to appear before the court to answer charges relating to their roles in the RUMER scandal in which they are alleged to have been deeply involved over the importation of vehicles and equipment for the Ghana Police.

The multi-billion cedi scandal allegedly made the two former bosses of the Police Service richer at the expense of the Ghana Police, which until recently had only 100 vehicles for duties nationwide.

Tomorrow, Thursday will witness the resumption of the GREL case in which 31st December Women’s Movement guru, Sherry Aryittey and leading NDC functionaries are answering charges of bribery and corruption.

Investigations by The Statesman indicate that the key prosecution witness, Etienne Popular, who was nowhere to found before previous adjournments, may eventually show up to state his case.

Also in the queue for prosecution is the former chief Executive of DIC, Emmanuel Agbodo, and his lieutenants who have been fingered in a multibillion cedi racket involving the divestiture of SOEs.

Last Tuesday, former Minister of Trade and Industry, Dan Abodakpi, and former Deputy Finance Minister Victor Selormey were arraigned before the FTC for their alleged role in the “Science and Technology Community Project,” scandal involving the fugitive, Dr Fred Owusu Boadu.

Before then, former GNPC boss, Tsatsu Tsikata, had appeared before the Fast Track Cout for his alleged role in causing a loss of over ?2.3b to the state.

Meanwhile, the Quality Grains scandal case involving former ministers of the NDC government and other heavy weights is at the homestretch with judgement expected before the end of the year when both prosecution and defence would have exhausted their cases.

In a related development, an FTC for the prosecution of armed robbers and hardened criminals is expected to go into action very soon. “The justice Ghanaians expect from the Fast Track Court will surely be delivered. And when it comes, such verdicts will be able to stand the test of time and not lend themselves to the vilifications that the kangaroo and Tribunal systems of the immediate past have generated. It is only a matter of time,” assured a source at the Fast Track Court.