General News of Saturday, 20 October 2018
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2018-10-20
Dr Isaac Yaw Ani, witness
The second prosecution witness for the state Dr Isaac Yaw in the National Communication Authority (NCA) $4 million scandal has been accused been untruthful to the court after a document which was presented in court indicated that the witness demanded an amount of 2 million dollars was released to LTI Management Limited.
Earlier in the trial counsel for Eugene Baffoe- Bonnie asked Dr. Isaac Yaw Anita whether he knows a company by name Mckush consultancy to which he answered yes. However, he denied ever knowing the Infraloks Development ltd a company owned by one of the accused persons or having any business whatsoever to do with the said company.
It later emerged in the course of the trial that the witness Dr. Ani was being untruthful to court when counsel for Eugene Baffoe- Bonnie confronted him with a document written signed by the Dr. Ani and addressed Infraloks Development Ltd demanding that he Dr. Ani be paid an amount of 2 million dollars for services rendered by his company. This revelation came after the witness had denied ever knowing or doing business with Infraloks Development ltd.
Quite curiously, the demand for USD 2 million was made just around the time Infraloks Development Ltd was paid an amount of USD 4 Million by NCA. What makes the case more interesting is that Dr. Ani as the director for finance is the person who authorised Ecobank to make the said payment to Infraloks.
Again Dr. Ani denied ever knowing of the contract for the purchase of cybersecurity equipment until February 2016. This testimony also later turned out to untrue when he was later confronted with a minute of the finance committee of NCA for June 2015 of which he was a part. The minutes showed that the purchase of the cybersecurity equipment (pegasus) was discussed in the meeting. Dr. Ani has so far given evidence which sharply contradicts the testimony of the first witness. It is becoming evident that the witness is not credible.
Cross-examination of Dr. Ani continues on Tuesday 23 October 2018.