State prosecutors in the trial of Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, the embattled former Executive Director of the National Service Secretariat (NSS), have admitted that investigations into the case had dragged on.
Stressing that it was no fault of the prosecution’s, a state attorney, Ms. Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, said investigators in the case had not yet completed their investigations.
This, she explained to the Economic, Financial and Tax Division of an Accra High Court presided over by Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa yesterday, that the prosecution had to do a thorough investigation to enable it execute the case well.
According to Ms. Obuobisa who was asking the court for yet another adjournment, some audit investigations into the case needed to be done.
However, Samuel A. Jinapor, counsel for Alhaji Imoro, said that the defence counsel could oblige the prosecution the adjournment for the seventh time or so.
According to him, since November 2014 when his client was arrested, the state, with all its apparatus, had had ample time to investigate the matter.
He said it had been the position of the defence counsel to seek justice in respect of the matter before the court.
Mr. Jinapor prayed the court to vary the bail condition that required Alhaji Imoro to report to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) every Wednesday.
He said all that Alhaji Imoro does when he goes to the BNI is just to write his name – a situation he said restricts the movements of his client and a drain on the accused person’s finances.
Ms. Obuobisa disagreed, insisting that the court maintain the bail condition because that was to ensure that the accused person is in the jurisdiction at all times.
The case has been adjourned to May 27, 2015.
The NSS boss is standing trial over allegations that he had from the month of September 2013 to July 2014, at the NSS headquarters in Accra, stolen GH¢86.9 million belonging to the Government of Ghana.
According to the prosecution, investigation so far revealed that for every month – starting from September 2013 to July this year – an amount of GH¢7.9 million was paid to 22,612 non-existent or ‘ghost’ service persons.
Alhaji Imoro has pleaded not guilty to the charge of stealing GH¢86.9 million.
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