A five-member Supreme Court panel presided over by Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie has ruled that the receiver of defunct uniBank, Nii Amanoo Dodoo, can testify in the criminal action of the state filed against Dr Kwabena Duffuor, and eight others at the criminal high court.
The rule of the apex court follows an application by lawyers of the former Finance Minister in the erstwhile John Evans Atta-Mills administration and now NDC presidential candidate hopeful, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, challenging the constitutionality of the decision of the state to make Nii Amanoo Dodoo, its first prosecution witness.
Dr Duffuor and eight others have been charged with 68 counts of fraudulent breach of trust, falsification of accounts, and money laundering, among others, as far back as February 2020.
While the trial is pending at the high court, the accused persons proceeded to the Supreme Court to challenge the appointment of Nii Dodoo, the 1st prosecution witness (PW1) as the receiver of now defunct uniBank.
They contend that the appointment of Nii Dodoo as receiver of uniBank by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) breached section 122(8) of the Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions Act (Act 930).
When the prosecution opened its case and PW1 began his testimony in court, Duffuor and his lawyers objected to his capacity to testify based on the contention that the receiver was unlawfully appointed as receiver because, per their interpretation of section 122(8) of Act 930, PW1 was supposed to be precluded from being appointed as receiver of uniBank by reason of having played a key role in the official administration of uniBank.
The objection was overruled by the trial court (High Court). They appealed to the Court of Appeal, but that was also dismissed.
The Supreme court was therefore invited by the defendants to carry out an interpretation of section 122(8) of Act 930 as the appellants is (Duffuor and others) are dissatisfied with the interpretation given to the said section by the trial court and which was also affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday (3 May 2023), affirmed the decision of the High Court and the Court of Appeal by dismissing the application. The decision of the Court was by 3:2 majority decision. Justices Paul Baffoe Bonnie, Professor Mensah Bonsu, and Samuel Asiedu constituted the majority while Justices Gabriel Pwamang and Amadu Tanko dissented.
Reporting by Wilberforce Asare in Accra
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