State Attorneys yesterday failed to show up at an Accra human rights court when lawyers for the two Ghanaians implicated in the alleged hijacking of M.T. Mariam marine oil tanker in Nigeria, had attempted to move a motion for bail.
George Opata Okrah, freight forwarder and Joel Yaw Attah, shipping agent, as well as eight Nigerians have been severally denied bail by an Adjabeng magistrate court in Accra over charges of conspiracy and piracy.
The prosecution alleges that the accused persons on January 17, 2015 at Tema, in the Greater Accra Region, by force of arms seized the said commercial marine vessel (tanker) flying the flag of Nigeria, under the charge of one captain Chris Ohuoha.
James Odartey Mills and Raynold Twumasi, Lawyers for Opatah and Attah respectively, unsatisfied with the decision of the court to remand their clients again, went to the high court to seek bail.
They are asking the court to order the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to bail their clients pending the trial of the case at the magistrate court.
However, the court, presided over by Justice Kenneth Okwabi, could not hear the motion for bail because the State Attorneys were absent.
The court then ordered that the Director of Public Prosecutions be served with the hearing notice before the next adjourned date.
However, at the hearing of the substantive case on Wednesday, Chief Inspector Patrick Hanson told the court that the prosecution was still waiting for the advice of the A-G.
This, he said, followed the forwarding of a duplicate copy of the case docket to the AG’s department.
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