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After vehemently accusing officials of the erstwhile Kufuor administration of corruption in the run-up to the 2008 general elections and promising to prosecute Kufuor�s men, the Mills-Mahama National Democratic Congress has suffered another jolt in its attempt to score a single victory in the law courts. President Mills� June 28, 2011 vow of �jailing Kufuor�s men� took another blow yesterday, as an Accra Fast track High Court acquitted and discharged former Foreign Affairs Minister, Akwasi Osei Adjei, of all eight charges, including causing financial loss to the state, in a case concerning the importation of rice from India into the country. The High Court also acquitted Daniel Gyimah, former Managing Director of the National Investment Bank, for the same charges. Akwasi Osei Adjei and Daniel Gyimah were standing trial for wilfully causing financial loss to the state. They were facing eight counts of conspiracy, contravention of the provisions of the public procurement act, use of public office for profit, stealing and wilfully causing financial loss to the state among others. The two were accused of importing some 300,000 bags of rice from India between April 2008 and February 2009, but the prosecution argued 2,997 of those bags of rice were diverted, leading to a financial loss of some GH�1.5 billion to the State. The former minister was on February 25 this year acquitted of six of the eight charges but still had to stand trial for two charges, including conspiracy to contravene the Public Procurement Act and Contravention of the Public Procurement Act, which commenced on March 25, 2012. Legal counsel for the defendants, Godfred Odame, said the verdict given on the case vindicated his earlier stance that Mr Adjei�s trial was politically motivated and had no basis whatsoever. Commenting on the state prosecution, he noted: �The manner in which the prosecution handled the matter leaves much to be desired. The whole objective of a trial is to bring a wrongdoer to justice, but when it is motivated by other motives, it becomes malicious.� This development is set to deepen cracks within the NDC over their inability to prove a single act of corruption against a single member of the Kufuor administration, which was a big campaign tool for the NDC in 2008. Information available to the New Statesman indicates that the Castle is not happy about this development after hoping current Attorney-General, Benjamin Kumbour, who replaced Martin Amidu, was hopefully going to plug the holes and get former NPP government officials convicted before the December polls. The NDC so far has lost all of the 13 cases it brought against the officials of the erstwhile NPP administration. It is instructive to note that Consultant at the Prosecutions Division, Gertrude G. Aikins, had earlier this year revealed there were no dockets against NPP officials which were ready for prosecution as opposed to the warnings by Betty Mould-Iddrisu in 2009 of �dramatic� and serious prosecutions of former officials �who actually, allegedly, committed criminal offenses� when they were in office. The revelation by Miss Aikins was in apparent reference to comments by NDC functionaries and appointees who had accused former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, of refusing to prosecute many cases submitted to him in court.