The fate of five former Senior Public Officials including two Ministers of State charged with conspiracy and wilfully causing financial loss to the state, in the Quality Grain case, would be determined by a Fast Track High Court (FTC) on Monday, April 28.
The FTC presided over by Mr Justice Dixon Kwame Afreh, Supreme Court Judge sitting as an additional High Court Judge, fixed the date on Friday, March 21, after both the Prosecution and the Defence Teams had completed their addresses to close their cases.
The officials, who have been accused of conspiracy and causing financial loss of 20 million dollars to the state in a rice project at Aveyime in the Volta Region, and have denied any wrongdoing are: Ibrahim Adam, former Minister of Food and Agriculture; Samuel Dapaah, former Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Kwame Peprah, former Minster of Finance.
The rest are George Yankey, a former Director of Legal Sector, Private and Financial Institutions of the Ministry of Finance and Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff.
The FTC had to defer judgement in the case to allow the Defence Team to argue out some points they had raised in their submissions. These included issues not embodied in their addresses and argument on contentious matters by the two teams.
On Friday, February 28 this year, the FTC suspended proceedings in the trial, to allow the Supreme Court to determine a writ filed by one Mr Frank Bo Amissah of Accra against the Attorney General, which sought to challenge the constitutionality of one of the charges preferred against the accused persons in the trial.
In addition, the trial was given a long adjournment in February last year and resumed on May 17, awaiting the review of the Supreme Court ruling, which declared the FTC unconstitutional.
Sometime in January, last year, the Court of Appeal ordered George Yankee and Ato Dadzie to return to the FTC for their trial on charges of conspiracy and causing financial loss to the state, to proceed.
This followed the dismissal of their respective applications, in a split decision, for a stay of proceedings at the FTC, pending the determination of interlocutory appeals at the Appeal Court.
Nana Akuffo Addo, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, now the Foreign Minister, led the Prosecution, which included Mr Osafo Sampong, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Mr Augustine Obuor, Assistant State Attorney.
The Defence Team comprised Mr Samuel Cudjoe, Nene Amagatse, Mr Kwaku Baah, Mr David O. Lamptey and Nana Ampofo Adjei.
