The ongoing trial of former COCOBOD chief executive and two others would now be heard on daily basis, an Accra High Court has directed.
Barring any unforeseen development, the new trial judge, Justice Aboagye Tandoh insisted that parties have to report to court every weekday, starting from Friday, October 13, 2023 until December 7, 2023 for new set of dates to be taken.
The former COCOBOD Chief Executive, Dr. Stephen Opuni and businessman Seidu Agongo as well as Agricult Ghana Limited, are facing 27 charges, including willfully causing financial loss to the state and contravention of the Public Procurement Act in the purchase of Lithovit liquid fertiliser between 2014 and 2016.
Unlike the two previous judges who sat on the case and magnanimously conferred with prosecution and defence lawyers before settling on convenient dates, Justice Aboagye Tandoh on Thursday, October 12, 2023 just announced the sitting dates without looking at the bar, he then adjourned the case and swiftly dashed to his chambers.
He had earlier dismissed a motion filed by counsel for Dr. Opuni, lawyer Samuel Codjoe, asking him to stay proceedings and reconsider his earlier decision to adopt previous proceedings.
Justice Aboagye Tandoh took over from Justice Kwasi A. Gyimah, who was transferred to Kumasi after barely sitting on the case four times when it was handed over to him following the retirement of Supreme Court judge, Justice Clemence Honyenuga.
Justice Tandoh appeared to have taken lawyers of the accused persons by surprise when he announced the adoption of proceedings on Tuesday, July 25, and followed it with directives to the first accused person to call his seventh witness for cross-examination to continue.
“I have examined and satisfied myself with the records and proceedings of the case of the Republic vrs Stephen kwabena Opuni and two others. I will therefore go ahead and adopt the proceedings as recorded by the other court. That is my ruling,” Justice Tandoh declared on July 25.
“My lord, what you have just done is alien to the practice. What are you adopting now?” Lawyer Samuel Codjoe, counsel for Dr. Opuni wondered.
After brief exchanges with counsel, the judge insisted: “That is my ruling. I said I have satisfied myself with the proceedings and adopted same.”
But Samuel Codjoe stressed, “we don’t have any records and we don’t know what you have adopted; since it’s your ruling, we will do what is right”.
Counsel subsequently filed a motion to get the judge to stay proceedings and to set aside the orders of the court in the last adjourned date – 25th July 2023
Citing several authorities, lawyer Codjoe drew the court’s attention to three areas where the court’s inherent jurisdiction can be invoked which include where it is necessary to prevent wrong or injury being inflicted by the court’s own judgment or on doing what it had no authority to do originally.
“My Lord, it is our submission that this ruling [on July 25] has no basis in law, and that this court erred in coming to the conclusion to adopt the proceedings in the way in which it did, that is, by not going through the proceedings with the representatives of the parties to agree what constitutes the record.
“The proceedings, as the parties have the legal and constitutional rights to correct any error in the record and in fact the court itself is required to ensure that the records are correct.
“Indeed at the court of appeal when the records of appeal were compiled, the record of appeal contains the entire proceedings of the case, we drew the attention of the court to numerous errors, mistakes in the transcript. This record we submit is what this court has adopted.”
However, Principal State Attorney, Stella Ohene Appiah who represented the state, opposed the application.
Relying on the affidavit she personally sworn to on 8th September 2023, she said, “my Lord we wish to add that this court rightly ruled in law when it made the ruling that it has adopted proceedings of the court differently constituted.”
She claimed that the applicant did not point out any mistake in the ruling being challenged, adding, “Parties are not the one to decide on what the proceedings should be.
“The adoption of the proceedings without consulting the parties who do not have the power in anyway, is the right thing the court did,” she insisted, “I therefore asked that the application should be refused for this case to continue.”
The trial judge after hearing the arguments for and against ruled that the “motion is devoid of merit and same is dismissed.”
Court Stood Down
Early on, before lawyer Codjoe could move the motion, counsel for Seidu Agongo, Benson Nutsukpui informed the court that prosecution failed to serve him with the affidavits in opposition.
Justice Aboagye Tandoh therefore instructed prosecution to ensure that counsel was properly served. He therefore stood down the case for 45 minutes to enable the processes served on counsel for the second accused person.
After waiting for about 43 minutes, lawyer Benson Nutsukpui was served with a copy of the affidavit in opposition.