ABODAKPI JAILED 10 YEARS

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, 06 February 2007
THE trial of Daniel Kwasi Abodakpi, Member of Parliament for Keta, which had dragged on for five years, finally ended yesterday with the Fast Track High Court sentencing him to 10-years in hard labour.

Abodakpi, aged 57, who has been an MP since 1993, was sentenced to 10 years on each of the seven counts of conspiracy, causing financial loss to the state and defrauding, to run concurrently.

A former Minister of Trade and Industry in the NDC government, the accused was said to have authorised the illegal payment of 400,000 dollars to Dr. Frederick Owusu Boadu, a Ghanaian consultant in the United States, from the Trade and Investment Project (TIP) fund.

The payments which were done in two instalments of 100,000 and 300,000 dollars were in respect of a feasibility study purportedly conducted by Dr. Boadu under the Science and Technology/Valley Park Project.

The 8 million dollar TIP fund was set up by the NDC government with assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote the non-traditional export sector.

The TIP was co-chaired by Abodakpi and Victor Selormey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, and the funds were lodged with the Ecobank.

Abodakpi was originally charged with Selormey, who died in the course of the trial.

The two were charged with three counts of conspiracy and two counts each of wilfully causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretences.
The trial judge, Appeal Court Judge S.T Farkye, in his judgement made it clear that the court’s decision was in respect of Abodakpi alone.

The court held that the prosecution had been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt, all the seven counts of conspiracy, wilfully causing financial loss and defrauding by false pretences.

On the issue of causing financial loss to the state, Justice Farkye said evidence adduced showed that Abodakpi wrote to request the payments and it was the late Selormey who authorised Ecobank to release the money into the personal account of Dr. Boadu although no work was done.

"The prosecution was able to lead evidence to show that there was no feasibility study conducted on the project to warrant the payment of the amount and this is a financial loss to the state."

On the count of defrauding by false pretences, the court held that Abodakpi wrote to Selormey that the purported feasibility studies met their expectations and it was upon that basis that Selormey also wrote to Ecobank to authorise the payments, adding that "no feasibility study was conducted but $400.000 was transferred into the account of Dr. Boadu".

On the charge of conspiracy, Justice Farkye said that although the two former ministers co-chaired the TIP it was Abodakpi who entered into the agreement with Dr. Boadu.

He then wrote to Selormey, authorising him to effect the payment to Dr. Boadu which was done in two instalments with all the correspondence copied to Abodakpi.

"There was no work done but they went ahead to authorise the payment. There was a financial loss and the loss was wilfully caused by the two."

While the prosecution accepted the court’s verdict, there was heated argument between Mr. Charles Hayibor, counsel for Abodakpi and the judge for not allowing the defence team to plead for mitigation before the sentencing.

"My Lord, you should have heard us before you passed the sentence," Mr. Hayibor said but Justice Farkye replied, "It is not in the rules that you should be heard before a person is sentenced."

Evans Dzikunu, another counsel for Abodakpi indicated the defence’s intension to appeal the ruling saying, "I have never listened to a judgement which does not touch on the defence’s case."

When the sentence was passed, Abodakpi remained in his seat, bowed his head slightly and put his right hand on his temple for about two minutes, before turning to look at his family members and sympathisers some of who wept uncontrollably.

At the court were also fellow NDC MPs mostly from the Volta Region. They included Mr. Ken Dzirasah, Mr. Doe Adjaho, Ms. Akua Sena Dansua, Mr. Francis Agbotse, Mr. Charles Hodzogbe and Ms. Juliana Azumah, as well as Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor, MP for Lawra Nandom.

Dr. Kumbuor later in an interview said, "It came as a surprise to me that anything the prosecution told the court was taken as the gospel truth and there was no reference to the type of defence put up by the defence team.

"Our criminal jurisprudence has developed and I expected the court to allow counsel to plead for mitigation for Mr. Abodakpi. We are waiting for the record of proceedings to see our next line of action.

"Today is a dark day in the rule of law history of the country and Africa at large," he said.

After the proceedings it took about 30 minutes before the police arrived to whisk Abodakpi away.

The case was started in 2002 with Mr. Osafo Sampong, then Director of Public Prosecutions and now a Court of Appeal judge leading the prosecution team.

Other prosecutors were Mr.Anthony Gyambiby, a Senior State Attorney and Ms. Gertrude Aikins, the current acting Director of Public Prosecutions who completed the case

The prosecution called 10 witnesses while the defence called three.