Trial of Abodakpi, Selormey adjourned

The Fast Track Court trying two former Ministers of State for their alleged involvement in fraud in the Trade and Investment Programme (TIP) on Monday adjourned to March 3, at the instance of the defence.

They are Daniel Abodakpi, ex-Minister for Trade and Industry and Victor Selormey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance. Abodakpi and Selormey are being tried on seven counts of conspiracy to commit crime, defrauding by false pretences and wilfully causing a total loss of 2.73bn cedis to the State.

They have denied all the charges and are currently on self-recognisance bail in the sum of 3bn cedis each. At the last sitting, Charles Hayibor, counsel for Abodakpi prayed the court to compel Edward Agyemang-Duah, the Auditor-General and a prosecution witness, to produce the entire file of TIP in court so that he could answer questions put to him.

Agyemang-Duah at Monday's sitting produced the file but defence prayed the court to give them a few minutes to look through it. The court therefore stood the case down. When the court resumed, Hayibor informed the court that the TIP file containing other relevant documents was too bulky and asked for an adjournment to enable them to study it critically so that they can continue with the Auditor-General's cross-examination.

"To ensure fair play and justice in the trial, the court must give us some time so that we can study these files and documents," he said. Anthony Gyambiby, a Principal State Attorney agreed with the defence. At this juncture the court presided over by Stephen T. Farkye, Appeal Court Judge, who is sitting on the case as an additional High Court Judge, adjourned the matter.