High Court Dismisses NDC Chair’ Stay Of Trial …forces witness to accept ownership of ‘forged’ statement

The High Court in Accra today dismissed an application by the national Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, for stay of proceedings the criminal trial involving him.

Trial judge, Justice Samuel Asiedu refused to grant the application which followed an application made to the Appeals Court by his lawyers to quash the High Court’s decision to pin a disavowed statement on the main witness in the case.

He ruled that the application does not raise any serious issues of fact or law requiring that the court halts proceedings.

First Prosecution Witness, Benjamin Osei Ampofo Adjei, who is a broadcast journalist with Accra-based Adom FM has denied that he made a witness statement that the prosecution has presented to the court.

According to Mr. Ampofo Adjei, the statement in question was not authored by him but was presented to him to sign by the Police at a time that he was at work.

Following from this confession, lead counsel for the NDC Chairman asked the court to reject the contentious statement, however, the court refused to strike it out.

Consequently, the defense team applied to the Appeals Court to set aside the High Court’s ruling. It is as the Appeals Court ruling is still impending that the High Court sat today as well.

Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo and his lawyers’ alert to the trial judge was however turned down by Justice Samuel Asiedu on grounds that no serious issues were raised by the applicants.

He also refused the disavowal of the witness statement by the witness, saying since the witness has his signature on the statement it is his.

Before the dismissal by the court, Chief State Attorney, Asiamah Sampong, had opposed the application saying nothing stopped the court from proceeding with the trial.

According to him, Mr. Ampofo has waived his rights to appeal when he failed to object to the statement during the Case Management Conference.

According to the judge, the application would unnecessarily delay the trial.

Mr. Ofosu Ampofo is facing trial together with Deputy Communications Officer of the party for allegedly plotting to destabilize the country.

According to the facts of the case as presented by the prosecution, following the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence on January 31, 2019, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo met with NDC communicators on February 3, 2019.

At the said meeting, Ofosu Ampofo and Anthony Boahen, allegedly, set out a road map of criminal activities, including violence against the EC Chairperson, Mrs Jean Mensa, and the Chairman of the National Peace Council, the Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante.

The prosecution avers that an audio recording of the said meeting was leaked, leading to investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service into the comments on the tape.

According to the State, on February 20, 2019, Boahen granted a radio interview in which he confirmed his participation in the meeting and also revealed that the leaked audio recording was a true reflection of what had transpired at the February 3, 2019 meeting.