Tsatsu addressing the media while his wife looks on
Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), is weighing up the option of seeking compensation from the State following his wrongful incarceration in 2008 by a court during the tenure of ex-President John Kufuor.
According to him, there are provisions in the 1992 Constitution regarding the type of compensation to be provided in the event that a conviction is set aside.
Mr. Tsikata’s comments come just a day after the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged him over charge of willfully causing financial loss to the State to the tune of GH¢230,000.
He was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment after a trial which Tsatsu and the ruling NDC claimed smacked of political persecution.
The three-member panel of justices, presided over by Justice S. E. Kanyoke, held that the imprisonment of Tsatsu by an Accra Fast Track High Court was a miscarriage of justice and unreasonable.
At a news conference in Accra yesterday, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawyer said he is yet to decide whether or not to pursue the State for compensation.
“There are provisions in the constitution regarding what compensation to be provided in the event that a conviction is set aside and those are provisions that when my lawyer returns, we will look at in the light of the judgement.”
“Let me say very openly and clearly, I habour no grudge against anybody in respect of anything that happened to me, they may have meant it for evil but God meant it for good.”
Mr. Tsikata commented: “I went through a whole legal education at the University of Nsawam as they describe it, because some of the things I learned from the discussions with other people taught me so much about what I had been studying and teaching as a lawyer.”
The former GNPC boss said, “Constitutional rights that are there for all of us have to be enforced and respected by the institutions of state, including the judiciary. And the fact that in this particular case it is my rights that are in question should not make us forget that a constitutional right is not a right just for Tsatsu Tsikata, it’s a right for all of us and we should all be interested in the enforcement and upholding of the constitution of Ghana.”
“The decision of the court on Wednesday brings to an end what I started 15 years ago when I was put before a so-called Fast Track High Court on criminal charges.”
By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson