The ongoing trial of former National Signals Bureau Director-General Kwabena Adu-Boahene took another dramatic turn on Tuesday after the Accra High Court refused a fresh request to suspend proceedings while the Supreme Court considers a review application over criminal trials during the legal vacation.
Lead counsel for Adu-Boahene, Samuel Atta Akyea, asked the court on August 25 to hold off proceedings until the Supreme Court determines a review application filed by Ofoase-Ayirebi MP Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
However, Justice Francis Apangabuno Achibonga rejected the request and ordered the defence to continue cross-examining the prosecution’s fourth witness, EOCO investigator Frank Marshall Cromwell.
Atta Akyea subsequently told the court he had not arrived prepared to conduct the cross-examination because he expected his application for an adjournment to succeed. He therefore requested that proceedings be postponed for the day so he could prepare.
The judge again declined, stressing that lawyers must be ready to proceed regardless of the outcome they anticipate from applications before the court. The defence lawyer was consequently compelled to resume his cross-examination.
The development follows an earlier decision by the same court on August 17, when proceedings were adjourned to await the Supreme Court’s ruling on an application seeking to stop selected criminal trials from continuing during the judiciary’s legal vacation.
That injunction application was dismissed on August 21 by Supreme Court Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, sitting as a single judge. Oppong Nkrumah has since asked the Supreme Court to review that decision.
Adu-Boahene, his wife Angela Adjei-Boateng, Mildred Donkor and Advantage Solutions Limited are standing trial over the alleged misappropriation of GH¢49.1 million connected to the procurement of a cybersecurity system for the state. They have denied wrongdoing.
With the High Court refusing to pause proceedings again, the closely watched trial is set to continue even as the separate Supreme Court legal battle over vacation sittings remains unresolved.
