Abodakpi loses appeal for bail again

Abodakpi being escorted to prison by a policeman

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday Novermber 2, 2007
The Court of Appeal yesterday unanimously dismissed an application for bail pending appeal by Daniel Kwasi Abodakpi, the convicted Member of Parliament for Keta.

Abodakpi was jailed 10 years on February 5, by an Accra Fast Track High Court presided over by Justice Stephen Twerefuor Farkye, for causing financial loss to the state.

He was said to have illegally authorised the payment of 400,000 dollars to Dr. Frederick Owusu Boadu, a Ghanaian consultant in Texas, United States, from the TIP fund.

The eight-million dollar TIP fund was set up by the NDC administration to promote the non-traditional export sector.

Abodakpi was originally charged together with Victor Selormey, former Deputy Finance Minister, who died in the course of the trial.

Abodakpi, 57, filed an application for bail pending appeal at the trial court but it was dismissed by Justice Farkye.

He then filed a fresh application for bail at the court of appeal which was moved on October 11 by his counsel, Tony Lithur, before Justices B.T. Aryeetey, Samuel Marful-Sau and Mariama Owusu.

Mr. Lithur had argued, among other things, that the trial judge, in convicting his client, gave no consideration to his defence.

He said failure to give due consideration to the defence of Abodakpi represented “a clear error on the face of the record which makes the judgement barred in law.”

Opposing the bail application, Mrs. Getrude Aikins, acting Director of Public Prosecution, said, the order holding Abodakpi is valid and could only be set aside by a higher court of competent jurisdiction.

She said Abodakpi’s argument that the judgment was wrong could only be corrected by the appellate courts. “Unless it can be demonstrated that the judgement is indefensible, the court cannot grant bail to the applicant,” she said.

Justice Aryeetey, presiding, was the first on the panel to read his ruling, followed by Justice Marful-Sau. Justice Owusu did not read her ruling, but seconded the rulings of her colleagues.

Justice Aryeetey in dismissing Abodakpi's application, said the convicted MP did not show any special circumstance or give unusual reasons in the application to warrant the grant of bail pending appeal which he described as a discretion of the court.

“Since the main focus of the application is the failure of the trial judge to give consideration to the defence put up by the applicant at the trial, it will be appropriate for us to look at the whole appeal and decide on it,” he said.

He said further that there is no indication of the record of proceedings not being ready as alleged by the applicant.

Justice Marful-Sau said he refused the application for bail because although counsel had said the conviction was wrong and the appeal was likely to succeed, he could not attach those documents in the process for bail.

“Contract for consultancy services by Dr. Owusu-Boadu and the issue of the 400,000 dollars being frozen in the bank formed the basis of the appeal, but counsel did not exhibit any of these for the court to know that on the surface, the accused is entitled to bail, pending appeal,” he said.