Osei Assibey Antwi
More than six months after the Attorney General charged former Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Osei Assibey Antwi, with criminal offences, including stealing and money laundering, his office is yet to file the full complement of disclosures and statements of witnesses it intends to rely on for the trial.
Despite multiple adjournments at the instance of the prosecution due to its failure to comply with the court order to file disclosures, the prosecution has once again asked for six more weeks within which to file the documents.
Lawyers for the accused person are not enthused about the development, raising concerns about how the prosecution is conducting the case, indicating “they are tagging us along as they put their house in order.”
Yesterday was the fourth time the court was told the prosecution had not been able to comply with the order to file the disclosures and witness statements to pave the way for a case management and commencement of the trial.
Mr. Assibey Antwi has been accused of stealing from the state during his tenure at the NSA as well as causing financial loss to the state, all totaling GH¢509,012,281 between August 2021 and February 2025.
He was first put before the court in October 2025, where he pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The Attorney General later amended the charges in March 2026 following the conclusion of an audit into the accounts of the NSA.
The court had since slated the case for disclosures to enable it conduct case management which will pave way for the trial to commence.
But the prosecution has not been able to comply with the court’s orders, forcing the court to adjourn the case on multiple occasions to accommodate them.
Dufie Prempeh, a Principal State Attorney at the Office of the Attorney General, told the court yesterday that the prosecution could not file all the documents and statements of witnesses it will be calling during the trial.
She, therefore, prayed the court to give the prosecution some time to file the remaining ‘bulky’ documents, which include audit reports and witness statements. When asked by the trial judge how long they will need, she said six weeks.
Ralph Poku-Adusei, counsel for Osei Assibey Antwi, registered his “displeasure” about how the prosecution is conducting the case, indicating that “we would have ordinarily asked that the accused person be discharged.”
Frozen Accounts
He, therefore, prayed the court to lift the restraint placed on the accused, including the freezing of his bank account and that of his daughter in the course of investigations.
He emphasised the need to defreeze the accused person’s daughter’s bank account, which he said is not connected to the case, neither is she an accused in the case.
“We will, therefore, submit that you graciously, and we also humble ourselves before you that you make orders to defreeze the accused person’s account or at the very least the daughter’s account while we wait whenever the prosecution is ready to file their documents for this case to proceed,” Mr. Poku-Adusei added.
Justice Kizita Naa Quarshie turned down the request to defreeze the accounts and asked the defence lawyer to “come formally” by way of an application.
She reminded the prosecution about rights of the accused person enshrined in the 1992 Constitution, while directing them to take urgent steps to bring the case to trial if they are minded to do so.
She added that considering the bulky nature of the disclosures, the prosecution has to meticulously prepare and file same, and noticing that the accused person has been charged with 21 offences, the court will grant the prayer for the prosecution to file the necessary disclosures to prove their case or not.
The case was adjourned to June 15
BY Gibril Abdul Razak