Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie
Defence lawyers in the trial of immediate Board Chairman of National Communications Authority (NCA), Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, and four others are demanding for other documents from the prosecution to enable them prepare their defence adequately.
The prosecution led by Yvonne Attakora Obuobisa had filed the documents they intended to rely on for the trial and all the defence lawyers had been served with all the documents.
The immediate past Board Chairman of the NCA, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, together with William Mathew Tetteh Tevie, former Director General of the NCA; Nana Owusu Ensaw, a former Chairman of Finance sub-Committee of the NCA; Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, a former National Security Coordinator on the NCA Board as well as a private businessman, George Derek Oppong, Director of Infraloks Development Limited (IDL), have been accused of conspiring and successfully causing financial loss to the state.
They are being charged for allegedly creating, looting and sharing a staggering $4 million among themselves under the guise of procuring a Cyber Surveillance System which they claimed was to be used for anti-terrorism activities in the country.
The state’s second witness, Dr. Isaac Yaw Ani, was in the box undergoing cross-examination by Thaddeus Sory – lead counsel for Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie.
But the lawyer who told the court that he was almost done with his cross-examination demanded to have access to minutes of the 42nd meeting of the financial committee of the NCA board which he said was crucial to the defence of his client.
He told the court that he would not have any further questions for the witness once the prosecution provides them with the minutes of the meeting.
Another defence lawyer, Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, who is lead counsel for William Mathew Tetteh Tevie, also told the court that he would need the minutes of the meeting in order to begin his cross-examination of the witness.
He said if the documents are made available to the court and it is admitted into evidence he may not even need to cross-examine the witness because of its importance.
The court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Barfour subsequently adjourned the matter to Thursday October 25, 2018, to enable the DPP get the minutes of the meeting from the NCA.
NCA $4 Million
It has emerged that the immediate Board Chairman of National Communications Authority (NCA), Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, ordered the release of $4 million to a private company, Infraloks Development Limited (IDL), for the purported supply of Cyber Surveillance System to the National Security Council Secretariat.
The release of the funds to the National Security which was not included in the 2016 budget of the NCA was done on the blind side of the governing board of the authority.
Deputy Director General in charge of management and operations at NCA, Dr. Isaac Yaw Ani, who oversaw the transfer of the funds to the private company, has told an Accra High Court that he authorized the transfer of the funds because he was under the assumption that the board had approved the funds.
Part of the money later finds its way into private pockets of the board members.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak