Baffoe Bonnie and Tetteh Tevie
The
judge in the case of some former Board Members of National Communications
Authority (NCA), and a businessman accused of causing financial loss to the
state has admonished defence lawyers to attach ‘seriousness’ to the defence of
their clients.
“In
your defence of the accused persons, I’ll urge you to be serious with
everything in terms of applications filed,”Justice Eric Kyei Baffuor urged the
lawyers.
The
statement comes at the back of another fresh application for stay of
proceedings filed by lawyer for Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, a former Board Chairman
of the NCA, which was dismissed by the court.
The
lawyer had filed the fresh application praying the court to stay its
proceedings pending an appeal of its ruling on a submission of no case filed by
the lawyer.
The
other lawyers also filed similar applications urging the trial court to stay
its proceedings pending the appeal of certain aspects of the rulings but all of
those applications were dismissed by Justice Kyei Baffuor.
The
four former board members then proceeded to the Court of Appeal for an order on
the trial court to stay its proceedings.
Mr.
Baffoe-Bonnie’s application at the Court of Appeal was in respect of an appeal
against the trial judge’s admission of three of his police caution statements
in which he allegedly confessed that all the accused persons had benefitted ‘financially’
in the purchase of the Pegasus equipment for counter terrorism assignments.
The
Court of Appeal, however, dismissed all the applications seeking to stay the
proceedings and they were asked to return to the High Court to open their
defence as had earlier been ordered by the trial court.
Fresh Move
Abu
Juan, lawyer for Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie, then filed another stay of proceedings
pending the determination of his appeal in respect of the submission of no
case.
Moving
the motion, he said the appeal raised serious legal issues and has a chance of
success.
He
added that the pace at which the proceedings at the trial court are moving is
such that if the proceedings of the court are not stayed and the appeal is
determined in favour of his client, it will have a direct effect on all the
proceedings before the determination of the appeal.
The
judge dismissed the application describing it as “a manifest attempt to delay
the trial and an abuse of the court processes.”
The
judge then ordered Mr. Baffoe-Bonnie to open his defence but his lawyer stated
that they are entitled to a seven-day automatic stay to exercise their ‘rights’.
The
court granted the request and subsequently called on Mathew Tetteh-Tevie to
open his defence but his lawyer also told the court that he would need time to
prepare his client.
Justice
Kyei Barfuor then ordered Mr. Tetteh-Tevie to prepare to open his defence on
July 4, 2019.
He also ordered the other accused persons to be prepared to open their defence in case Mr. Tetteh-Tevie fails to do so to avoid “another needless adjournment.”
BY Gibril Abdul Razak
