Dr Stephen Opuni
An interlocutory motion for stay of proceedings filed by former Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Stephen Opuni, was yesterday adjourned by an Accra High Court to Monday, December 19, 2022.
The adjournment was occasioned by non-service of the application for stay filed by Dr. Opuni and the affidavit in opposition filed by the Office of the Attorney General on counsel for Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Limited.
The application is seeking to stay proceedings pending the determination of a motion for certiorari at the Supreme Court to bar Justice Honyenuga, a retired Supreme Court judge from continuing to sit on the case.
It was scheduled to be heard last week but was adjourned because it was not served on the parties in the matter, neither was the prosecution’s affidavit in opposition.
The court subsequently adjourned the case to yesterday, which was the original date for the hearing, but Akweley Gabor, who held brief for Benson Nutsukpui, counsel for Seidu Agongo and Agricult Ghana Limited said they had still not been served with the motion and the prosecution’s affidavit in opposition.
This did not go down well with the trial judge, who sent for the Chief Bailiff to find out why the motion and the affidavit were still not served almost two weeks after they were filed.
The court was told the processes were handed to one Emmanuel Agyei, who was supposed to effect service, but the records show that he only served the prosecution and not counsel for Agongo and Agricult.
The court, therefore, ordered the bailiff to serve the processes by close of work yesterday. It further ordered the bailiff to appear before the court on December 19, 2022, “to inform the court whether he has performed his lawful duty.”
Dr. Opuni, has for the umpteenth time filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking the removal of Justice Clemence Honyenuga (rtd) from his trial.
His lawyers filed an application for certiorari to quash the decision of the trial judge which dismissed his earlier application asking the judge to step down from the trial because he had retired.
The application is also asking the Supreme Court to prohibit the retired judge from continuing to hear the case in which he and Seidu Agongo have been accused of causing over GH¢217 million financial loss to the state.
He has subsequently filed an application for a stay of his trial pending the determination of the appeal filed against the decision of the trial judge.
Last month, Dr. Opuni filed an application before the High Court seeking a stay of proceedings and a referral of Articles 139(1c) and 145(4) to the Supreme Court after the court held that the Chief Justice acted within the constitution when he extended the tenure of the retiring judge.
This was after trial court had dismissed an application filed by his lawyer seeking to restrain the judge from further hearing the case on grounds that he has retired after attaining 70 years, which is the statutory retiring age for Supreme Court judges.
The Chief Justice, in accordance with Article 139(1c) of the Constitution, gave the judge six months pursuant to Article 145 of the Constitution to conclude the trial.
But Dr. Opuni, through his counsel, filed an application challenging the extension.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak