A financial court in Accra has admitted former Foreign Affairs Minister, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, and the Managing Director of the National Investment Bank, Mr Daniel Gyimah, each to a bail of GH�200,000 at its hearing on Thursday.
The two, according to Joy News pleaded not guilty to eight counts, including causing financial loss to the state, on Wednesday. Presenting the facts of the case, Chief State Attorney, Anthony Gyambiby, said the two were responsible for the importation of some 300,000 bags of rice from India between April 2008 and February 2009 but indicated 2,997 of those bags of rice were diverted, leading to a financial loss of some GH�1.5 billion to the state.
He prayed the court to seize the passports of the two accused persons to prevent them from "running away" from the country. Counsel for the accused persons however debunked the claims made by the prosecution. Godfred Dame, counsel for Mr. Osei-Adjei, noted the only role his client played was merely diplomatic and that the former Foreign Minister could not be charged for causing financial loss to the state.
In his defence, counsel for Mr Gyimah also pointed out his client had, at the time of importation, been detained by the BNI. The sitting Judge, Bright Mensah, on appeal from the defence counsels reviewed Mr Osei-Adjei's earlier bail amount of GH�2 million each with two sureties, one to be justified.
The counsel had described the bail condition as outrageous, prompting the trial judge to review his conditions. He also refused the request to arrest the passports of the two accused persons and rather demanded documents of movable or immovable properties belonging to the two to be made available to the court. The case has been adjourned to November 4, 2009.
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