…with strange transfer of Judge a year after Kissi Agyebeng publicly cried over frustration
Justice Priscilla Dikro Ofori, who presided over the criminal trial of Alex Kwabena Safo Kantanka for bribery, was transferred just when she was due to deliver judgment.
Mr Sarfo-Kantanka, President Akufo-Addo’s nominee to be the MCE of Juaben in the Ashanti Region, was charged with 26 counts of election-related corruption, before the High Court in Kumasi by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Interestingly, exactly a year today, The Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, accused the judiciary of throwing spanner in his works that is making it difficult for his office to make progress in the fight against corruption in Ghana.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday (29 November, 2023), Agyebeng said it is dangerous for judges to prevent the Office of the Special Prosecutor from doing its work, citing some four cases that went against him recently.
The Accra high court on Monday, November 27, 2023 quashed adverse findings in the report of the OSP on 3 August 2022 against the former commissioner for the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Col Kwadwo Damoah (rtd), and his deputy Joseph Adu-Kyei in the Labianca case.
But according to media reports, following the conclusion of the trial, judgment was expected yesterday, Thursday, November 28, 2024. However, the parties went to court yesterday, only to be told the presiding judge had been transferred and a new judge was in place.
Mr Sarfo Kantanka, faces multiple charges of corruption, including allegations of offering bribes to assembly members in an effort to secure their approval for his nomination as Municipal Chief Executive for Juaben.
The court had initially fixed yesteray, Thursday, as the date to deliver judgment. However, during Thursday’s sitting, the accused appeared with new legal counsel who argued that their client wished to file written submissions, a task his previous counsel had failed to complete.
The newly assigned judge, upon hearing the submissions, stated in open court that he was new to the case and required time to thoroughly review the docket.
Consequently, the matter was adjourned to January 20, 2025, by which time a new government would have been installed after the December 7 election.
It is recalled that in 2022, the OSP dragged Mr Sarfo Kantanka, who was charged with 26 counts of election-related corruption, before the High Court in Kumasi.
Mr Sarfo Kantanka, who failed to secure the needed votes to become the MCE for the Juaben Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti Region after two rounds of voting in September and November 2021, was caught on camera demanding the return of monies he had paid to some members of the assembly to influence his confirmation.
The suspect allegedly gave the elected members of the assem¬bly GH¢5000 each and gave GH¢2,500 to each of the govern¬ment appointees.
In its statement at the time, the OSP said, “the accused admitted gifting the indicated sums of money to the respective categories of the members of the assembly to influence the outcome of the elections in his favour.”
Members of the Juaben Municipal Assembly had, for the second time, rejected Sarfo-Kantanka as MCE after he failed to reach the two-thirds threshold needed.
He received 10 ‘Yes’ votes as against 15 ‘No’ votes with one ballot rejected.
Twenty out of the 26 assembly members, boycotted the previous process, citing heavy security pres¬ence at the venue.
After the process, Mr Safo-Kantanka, was captured in a viral video, demanding for his money.
The OSP said that the failed nominee “went berserk and vented his wrath on the members of the assembly and angrily demanded a refund of the money he had gifted to them.”
The police arrested him and granted him self-recognisance bail on November 1, 2021.
The Kumasi High Court in June 2023, admitted as evidence a viral video in which the failed Juaben MCE nominee, could be seen and heard demanding money from Assembly Members.
The court had on Monday (27 November, 2023) concluded that, the OSP is not a court of competent jurisdiction or a commission of enquiry to make adverse findings and prohibited the anti-graft body from further investigating Damoah and Adu-Kyei in respect of the adverse findings.
Addressing the media, Agyebeng said the trend of the court is “dangerous” and could impede the fight against corruption.
“As I said, I wasn’t sounding like a prophet of doom but there is doom looming ahead of us, that very soon a murderer will boldly walk to go to seek an injunction,” the Special Prosecutor said. “Should I feel frustrated and resign? I took an oath and, in my life, when I take on the reins to do something, I do it to the best of my ability.”
Focusing on the judiciary, he said: “Let us bring before you the body of our investigation as evidence. If you look at it, and you decide that the evidence does not shore up to the standard of proof required in criminal cases, you can dismiss it but don’t prevent us from doing our work, from investigating. It is dangerous.”
