Judge recuses himself in $2m fraud case    

An Accra high court judge handling the case involving an Accra-based lawyer, Charles Opoku Yeboah and another over an alleged $2 million estate fraud, on Thursday recused himself from the case.

When the case was called, the presiding judge, Justice Charles Edward Ekow Baiden, said he had known Charles as a member of his church, and as such would want to avoid any appearance of bias in the case.

He said Charles was re-arrested on a bench warrant and brought back to his court on March 15, 2017 as the case was already pending.

“I would want to recuse myself from the case and refer same to the Chief Justice for re-allocation to another court, although it is within my jurisdiction to hear it,” he announced.

Charles, together with one Stephen Kwame Addo, an estate agent, was alleged to have defrauded the chairman of Koala Limited of an amount of $2 million under the pretence of securing him a piece of land to expand his business.

He was represented in court by David Koko, while the estate agent was represented by Mrs Joyce Debrah, state attorney.

At the last adjourned date, the case was heard in chambers but the court granted Charles bail.