Court Orders Former Deputy BoG Governor To Self-Quarantine Upon Return From Nigeria

The Accra High Court where former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Asiamah, is facing trial for allegedly breaching statutory procedure to assist a sinking bank has released his passport to him today to enable him travel to Nigeria.

However, the court preconditioned the release of the passport which had been impounded as part of his bail condition, with the requirement that Dr. Asiamah will self-quarantine on return from Nigeria.

The court pointed out that Nigeria is one of the African countries affected by the deadly corona virus pandemic and therefore, for the safety of Ghanaians, the former BoG Governor will have to self-quarantine immediately he returns to the country.

Many have said that even though the court’s precondition is quite sensible, the trial judge appeared to fear for his own safety at a time that the deadly virus has claimed 635 lives across the globe.

At the last count, the virus has also infected 126,380 people.

Dr. Asiamah is facing trial over accusation that he approved a sum of Ghc650million as liquidity support for the defunct UT Bank without following statutory procedure.

He has since pleaded not guilty and was weeks ago granted bail in the sum of Ghc60million with three sureties. It was as part of the bail condition that his passport was impounded by the court.

However, today his lawyers said he needed to travel to Nigeria and therefore prayed the court to release his passport.

The State was not opposed to the release of his passport by the court but expressed concern over the fact that Nigeria is a corona virus infected country. The trial judge concurred but said the court had no problem releasing the passport so long as Dr. Asiamah is prepared to self-quarantine upon his return.

Usually, precautionary quarantine is done over a two-week period within which an infected person starts showing symptoms.