Docket on mortuary attendants referred to Attorney General
Tribunal adjourns BOG case for three months
Sekondi (Western Region) 25 July 2000
Sergeant Andam Okyere, the prosecutor in the case in which five mortuary attendants are standing trial at a Sekondi Community Tribunal, on Monday said the docket has been sent to the Attorney General's Department for advice.
Isaac Quayson, 54, Samuel Duku, 30, Simon Baidoo, 36, of Effia Nkwanta Hospital Mortuary and Joseph Dadzie, 42 and Kwesi Amoani, 57, of Cape University Hospital made their fourth appearance at the tribunal.
They are standing trial for their involvement in the disappearance of the corpse of Obaapayin Grace Duncan, aged 87 from the Effia Nkwanta Hospital Mortuary. The case has been adjourned to August 10.
Sgt Okyere had told the tribunal that the deceased was admitted at the Effia Nkwanta Hospital on April 5, but died on April 13 and was embalmed and given tag number 41 and placed in refrigerator B3.
On June 1 after the family had paid the storage fees of 397,000 cedis, the mortuary attendants informed them that the corpse was missing.
Sgt. Okyere said that the family not satisfied with the explanation given, reported the incident to the Police.
Upon a tip-off, the Police went to Cape Coast University Hospital, where the body was allegedly transferred without any transfer or death certificate, but corpse could not be found there.
GRi…/
Accra (Greater Accra) 25 July 2000
An Accra Regional Tribunal on Monday adjourned to October 23, the case in which two top officials of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) together with a businessman are being tried for their alleged involvement in a seven-billion-cedi fraud that hit the bank in May.
The adjournment became necessary because one of the panel members was absent, compelling the Chairman of the three-member tribunal, Mr Isaac Duose to adjourn it for three months. The courts are going on vacation in August.
The two bankers are Mr Sebastian Dick Kobla Nukpui Gavor, Director, Budget and Accounts Department and Mr Justice Ofosu Larbie, Deputy Director in charge of the Banking Department.
The businessman, Alhaji Sadiq Gimala is the Chief of the Wangara Community in Accra. They are facing two counts of conspiracy to steal and stealing.
They have all pleaded not guilty and are on a 500-million-cedi bail with two sureties each to be justified.
At its last sitting a week ago, the tribunal ordered BOG to rescind its decision to dismiss its two officials after their counsel had drawn the tribunal's attention to their dismissal letters from the bank.
The tribunal also ordered that the two bankers should remain interdicted until the case had been determined, and that BOG would be cited for contempt if it failed to comply with the order.
Furthermore, the tribunal ordered counsel for the accused persons to enter into negotiations with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO,) which has frozen their assets, to de-freeze part, to enable the accused persons to make ends meet.
The tribunal also ordered the Editor of the "Independent", an Accra bi-weekly, to furnish the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) with relevant information that could lead to the arrest of Hajia Amina B Abubakar Sidiq, popularly called Hajia Baby Ocansey.
It further ordered Gavor to swear to an affidavit to be served on the Director of the BNI in connection with the monies alleged to have been seized from his residence during a search.
Meanwhile, the BOG and the Attorney General's Department have filed separate motions at the Supreme and Appeal Courts, opposing the ruling by the Regional Tribunal.
Both institutions hold the same view that by giving those orders, the trial tribunal erred in law.
In an ex-parte application filed on behalf of BOG at the Supreme Court by Mr Yaw Boahene Asare of the Legal Department of BOG, it is praying the court to grant an order of certiorari to quash the orders made by the Regional Tribunal.
In a supporting affidavit, BOG contends that the tribunal is trying a purely criminal case, and therefore it has no jurisdiction on a civil case.
In the view of BOG, the tribunal without hearing the evidence in the case that is totally unrelated to the criminal offences committed by the two bankers, "has made certain orders which, it has no jurisdiction to make".
It is, therefore, the BOG's contention that the tribunal could have made those orders after convicting the accused persons and that "they were irrelevant to the guilt of the accused persons.
"The Regional Tribunal misconceived its jurisdiction to determine matters, which were not directly or indirectly concerned with the criminal matters before it."
The BOG pointed out that the tribunal could not have made the pronouncements without hearing BOG which, could be affected by the tribunal's orders on the bank's reasons for the steps it had taken to dismiss its offending officers.
In the case of the Attorney General's Department, its motion at the Court of Appeal filed on its behalf by a Senior State Attorney, Mrs Merley Wood is against the tribunal's order for BOG to reverse its decision to dismiss its two officials.
In the motion, the Attorney General made it clear that the trial judge erred in law by ordering the re-instatement of Gavor and Larbie.
The motion explained further that the tribunal erred in law by exceeding its jurisdiction to exercise civil jurisdiction in a purely criminal case.
The motion is, therefore, praying the Court of Appeal to order the trial tribunal to reverse its July 17 ruling in respect of the order of the dismissal of the two top BOG officials.
The accused persons are being represented by Mr E D Adjetey, Mr Chris Ackummey, Mr Solomon Quandzie and Miss Margaret Insaidoo. Both courts are yet to fix dates to determine the motions.
GRi../