Kwabena Adu-Boahene
Lawyer for the immediate past Director-General of National Signals Bureau (NSB), Kwabena Adu-Boahene and his wife, Angela Adjei-Boateng has applied for bail at the High Court, as the two are still in the custody of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).
Kwabena Adu-Boahene is accused of diverting GH¢49 million of state funds through his private company owned by him and the wife under the guise of purchasing a Cyber Defence System for the country.
The couple, according to the Attorney General, have been granted an enquiry bail totaling GH¢200 million with sureties to be justified.
But their lawyer, Samuel Atta Akyea, in his application filed before a High Court in Accra, avers that this was a clear motive by EOCO to incarcerate the couple beyond the 48-hour rule by imposing the “burdensome and unreasonable conditions” on them.
The application which attaches the AG and EOCO as respondents avers that “the liberty of the applicants should not be at the sufferance of the respondents who have clearly shown an intention to continue with this blatant violation of their rights to liberty pending investigation.”
The application further argues that it will be a travesty to justice to allow “the captors of the applicants to determine the reasonable conditions that are requisite for their bail, given their demonstrated utmost bad faith and unmitigated prejudice in the matter.”
Mr. Atta Akyea also alleges that officers of EOCO have denied him audience with his clients, and that they insisted on him engaging the couple at the counter of the cells while they listen and record the lawyer-client interaction.
He adds that the respondents have committed a constitutional infraction in denying the couple their right to counsel and shall continue to do so until the court “intervenes in this travesty of justice.”
Media ‘Persecution’
Meanwhile, Mr. Atta Akyea has accused the Attorney General of persecuting his clients in the media, thereby prejudicing the mindset of Ghanaians even before a single charge is preferred against them.
The lawyer, in a statement issued in the aftermath of Dr. Dominic Ayine’s press conference, accused the Attorney General of feeding the public with what he described as “pathetic” one-sided and untested position.
“It is difficult to come to terms with the fact that the Attorney General is comfortable with the press, where there is ‘no proof beyond reasonable doubt.’ The Attorney General has become the press persecutor of our clients, a judge in his own court while simultaneously asserting that he is still investigating the case. This is counter-intuitive,” the statement reads.
AG’s Allegations
Kwabena Adu-Boahene is accused of diverting GH¢49 million of state funds through his private company under the guise of purchasing a Cyber Defence System for the country.
The Attorney General alleges that the suspect, who was a co-signatory to the national BNC’s Director’s Account at Fidelity Bank, was able to transfer the money out of which only GH¢9,537,520 ($1.75 million) was paid to ISC Holdings Limited, an Israeli company contracted to supply the software.
The AG further alleges that the remaining GH¢39,462,480 went to Mr. Adu-Boahene and his wife, Angela Adjei-Boateng for no work done.
Rebuttal
But counsel for the couple has accused the Attorney General of trying his clients in the court of public opinion, thereby prejudicing their case.
The statement expressed shock that the Attorney General was even entertaining the thought of plea bargaining when the statements of the suspects are yet to be taken let alone a charge preferred against them.
Not Flight Risk
The statement also denied the Attorney General’s claim that Adu-Boahene is a flight risk, and stated that rehearsed criminals do not voluntarily go to the place of their arrest.
“They run away and become fugitives from justice. Again, when the undertaking is persecution, it is easy to confuse decent and well-cultured Ghanaians from common criminals. As at today, Angela has been incarcerated by EOCO on the account of what the Attorney General is using to contaminate our clients in the press and unprofessionally expose them to public opprobrium,” the statement added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak