Court rejects Ex-NAFCO CEO’s bid to dismiss charges, orders partial amendments
The Accra High Court has rejected an application by lawyers for former National Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO) Chief Executive Officer Hanan Abdul-Wahab seeking to have the entire charge sheet against him dismissed.
Instead, the court directed the prosecution to amend only Counts 9 and 14, clearing the way for the trial to continue.
Mr Abdul-Wahab and his wife, Faiza Wuni, are facing 20 charges, including allegations of causing financial loss to the state.
The application was argued by the couple’s lead counsel and former Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, who maintained that the charge sheet was fundamentally flawed and should be struck out in its entirety.
The court, however, declined the request, ruling that only two counts required amendment.
Addressing journalists after the ruling, Mr Dame described the decision as unsatisfactory and disclosed that his legal team would challenge it at the Court of Appeal.
“Even though they’ve been ordered to amend some of the charges, we’ll still file an appeal. We’ll file an appeal against it,” he said.
“I think the decision was not so sound, even with the greatest respect to the judge.”
Mr Dame argued that several of the charges lacked sufficient particulars to enable the accused to adequately prepare their defence.
According to him, some counts referred to multiple payments without indicating when they were made, where they occurred or how they were connected.
“You cannot have various payments, the number of which we do not know, when each of them occurred we do not know, where they occurred we do not know; they are not disclosing it on the charge sheet, and then you say that you’re not going to order them to amend and that charge is proper. That charge cannot be proper,” he stated.
He insisted that each transaction relied upon by the prosecution should be clearly identified.
“You cannot have a sum of 50 million put together in one count and state in the same count that it consists of several payments. Which several payments? When did they take place? Are they related? Definitely they’re not related,” he added.
Mr Dame explained that because the National Buffer Stock Company supplies food items to institutions across the country, each transaction should be specifically outlined.
“We know how Buffer Stock operates. It’s actually the supply of foodstuffs to various institutions. So you can have one transaction affecting a school in the Northern Region and another transaction affecting another school in the Upper East Region or Upper West Region,” he said.
The former Attorney-General stressed that the appeal was intended to safeguard his client’s constitutional rights rather than delay the proceedings.
“My consideration professionally is to ensure that the rights of my client as an accused person are protected in every regard before the trial commences. It’s not just a matter of delay or anything,” he said.
He maintained that a fair trial depended on the accused having a clear understanding of the charges against them.
“It’s just a matter of ensuring that he properly ascertains the charges that are brought against him,” he noted.
Using a boxing analogy, Mr Dame argued that the current wording of some of the charges placed the accused at a significant disadvantage.
“He cannot be proceeding when his hands have been tied behind his back and his eyes blindfolded. Definitely, they cannot be blindfolding the accused person and ordering him to box in the dark.”
Mr Abdul-Wahab and his wife are accused of orchestrating a scheme to divert public funds intended for the National Buffer Stock Company and the School Feeding Programme for their personal benefit.
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