Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkornoo
The Chief Justice, Gertrude Torkornoo, has dismissed a petition sent her by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to remove Justice Edward Twum from the ongoing case between the Office and former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Abena Dapaah and her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffuor.
Although the full content of the Chief Justice’s (CJ) decision is not known, the OSP in a social media post indicated that, “By a letter dated October 25, 2023, the Judicial Secretary informed the Special Prosecutor that, the Chief Justice is unable to accede to the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) request for his lordship Justice Edward Twum to be recused and removed from all cases involving the OSP pending before him.”
The Economic and Financial Court 2 of the High Court in Accra was expected to hear an application yesterday, filed by the OSP asking the court to stay proceedings pending the determination of a motion for certiorari at the Supreme Court to quash the decision of the High Court.
The motion for certiorari is seeking to set aside the decision of the High Court to abridge the date for the hearing of the OSP’s motion for confirmation of seizure of $590,000 and GH¢2.73 million found in the home of the former minister and the freezing of Madam Dapaah’s bank accounts on suspicion of corruption and corruption-related offences.
But the court had adjourned the case to yesterday hoping to receive the Chief Justice’s response on the petition asking her to remove Justice Twum from the case and any other OSP case.
This did not happen at the time the case was called, and the judge after meeting parties in the matter in his chambers adjourned the case to November 8, 2023, hoping the Chief Justice would have given a directive on the petition by then.
Background
The OSP arrested Madam Dapaah on July 24, 2023, on suspicion of corruption and corruption-related offences after she and her husband, Daniel Osei Kuffuor reported huge sums of money was stolen from their home by their two house maids.
The two maids, Patience Botwe and Sara Agyei as well as five (5) other accomplices are currently standing trial before an Accra Circuit Court for stealing a total $1 million and several millions of Ghana Cedis from the home of the former minister.
She resigned from her position as a Minister of State on July 22, 2023, after several calls by the general public on her to step down after a revelation of the huge sums of monies – both in Ghana Cedis and other foreign currencies were reportedly stolen from her matrimonial home.
The Office has filed another application for confirmation of seizure of $590,000 and GH¢2.73 million found in her home and the freezing of her seven bank accounts after an earlier one was dismissed by an Accra High Court for not complying with the rules.
Her lawyers subsequently filed a motion for abridgement of time asking the court to hear the case earlier than the October 18, 2023 which was the return date.
The application was granted by the court on October 11 and the case was rescheduled for October 12, 2023 for the OSP to move the motion for confirmation and seizure.
The OSP, however, petitioned the Chief Justice to remove Justice Twum from the case and any other case it is prosecuting on grounds of bias against the Office and the person of the Special Prosecutor.
The OSP, moments after court proceedings, issued a statement on X (formerly Twitter), indicating that it has requested the Chief Justice to recuse and remove Justice Edward Twum from all cases involving the OSP pending before him.
“The request is grounded on the OSP’s well-founded belief that Justice Edward Twum appears to be highly prejudiced against the OSP and the person of the Special Prosecutor.
“Consequently, as it stands, the OSP would not and cannot be reasonably expected to be parties to proceedings before the said judge,” the statement added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak