A former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda; his successor, Dr Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah, and three others yesterday pleaded not guilty to 52 counts of causing financial loss of $200m to the state over the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project when they made their first appearance at the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court.
The three others are the Chief Director at the ministry from 2009 to 2017, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu; the Executive Chairman of Construtora OAS, the Brazilian company which constructed the affordable housing project at Saglemi, Andrew Clocanas, and a director of RMS, the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) consultancy subcontractor, Nouvi Tetteh Angelo.
The five persons have been slapped with different charges, including wilfully causing financial loss to the state, misapplying public property, issuing false certificates and dishonestly causing loss to public property.
They all took turns to take their respective pleas as the presiding judge, Justice Comfort Tasiame, read out the charges to them.
As early as 8 a.m. yesterday, the court was fully packed with sympathisers and some notable bigwigs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including, the Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr Haruna Iddrisu; the MP for Asawase, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka; the MP for Ablekuma South, Mr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije; a former Deputy Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine; the Communications Officer of the NDC, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, among others.
Others stood outside the courtroom until the close of the nearly three-hour proceeding.
Bail
Alhaji Dauda was granted a self-recognisance bail and ordered to deposit his passport at the court registry.
Dr Agyeman-Mensah and Alhaji Yakubu were granted bail in the sum of $65 million each or its cedi equivalent, with three sureties, one of whom must be a civil or public servant.
Clocanas was granted bail in the sum of $179 million or its cedi equivalent, with three sureties, one of whom must be a public or civil servant, while Angelo was granted bail in the sum of $13 million, with three sureties, one of whom must be a public or civil servant.
The sureties are to deposit proof of landed properties at the court registry.
The court further ordered all the accused persons to deposit their Ghanaian passports at the court registry.
The case was adjourned to October 13, this year.
Not opposed
The Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister of Justice, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, who read out the facts of the case, immediately told the court that he was not opposed to bail application.
Rather, he urged the court to avert its mind to the “undisputed” circumstances under which the accused persons had been arraigned.
He said Alhaji Dauda was the only public officer among the accused persons who was entitled to self-recognisance bail, subject to the deposit of his passport at the registry of court.
“I submit that the amount and conditions of bail be commensurate with respect to the respective sums for which they are standing trial,” Mr Dame added.
Bail application
In his bail application, counsel for Alhaji Dauda, Mr Thaddeus Sory, drew the court’s attention to the fact that his client was not only a public officer within the country’s jurisdiction but also a member of the pan-African Parliament.
That, he said, would require the accused to travel consistently outside the country.
He, therefore, urged the A-G and the court to place more emphasis on that fact in granting bail to the accused person, adding: “Dauda is not flight risk and will be available to stand trial. We pray the court to take this into account.”
Counsel for Dr Agyeman-Mensah and Alhaji Yakubu, Mr Godwin Edudzi Tamekloe, argued that the circumstances under which his clients had been arraigned could be disputed, adding that his clients were not guilty until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.
He further told the court that his clients, throughout the preliminary investigations by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), had
