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Tsikata’s certiorari application
dismissed– Supreme Court
Accra, Oct 28, Ghanadot/GNA - The Supreme Court has stated
that it dismissed Tsatsu Tsikata’s application for
certiorari on October 16 because it was “unmeritorious”.
In summarizing its decisions filed at the Registry on
Friday, October 24, the Court said: “Indeed, the application
is devoid of any merit whatsoever, and it is for this reason
that we have refused or dismissed it.”
On October 16, the five-member panel presided over by Ms.
Justice Sophia Akuffo refused to quash the judgment
delivered by an Accra Fast Track Court that tried and
convicted the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana
National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on June 18 for
wilfully causing financial loss to the State.
The Court further declined to arrest judgment on whether or
not to order the International Finance Corporation to
testify in the matter.
After his conviction on June 18, Tsikata filed the
application praying the Supreme Court to quash the Fast
Track Court’s judgment on the grounds that Mrs Justice
Henrietta Abban, the trial judge, was biased against him.
Tsikata was of the view that the action of Mrs Justice Abban
had the potential of undermining the authority of the
Supreme Court.
He said his application was to enable the court to ensure
that the administration of justice might not be brought into
disrepute by what he termed “the desecration of Justice”.
In its reasons for dismissing the application, the Supreme
Court stated that after a thorough study of the application
“we do not find any justification for granting any of the
relief sought by Tsatsu.”
It explained that its supervisory jurisdiction over the
superior courts “is one which has far reaching potential
and, as such, it is important that we exercise it with
circumspection so as to achieve the purpose for which we
were given such a power.
“We are not to use this power to interfere unduly with the
exercise of judicial discretion, nor are we to allow it to
be used as an alternative to appeal.”
The Supreme Court further explained that it had been
repeated on several occasions that want of jurisdiction must
not be imputed to a superior court in the absence of clear
error amounting to illegality.
“The question of whether or not to exercise our supervisory
jurisdiction must always be guided solely by the real
circumstances surrounding each application. In the … case,
the record clearly indicates that this is not the right
occasion for its exercise.”
On June 18, Tsikata was found guilty on three counts of
wilfully causing financial loss of 230,000 Ghana Cedis to
the State, and an additional count of misapplying public
property to the tune of 2,000 Ghana Cedis, and accordingly
sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment.
In 2002, he guaranteed a loan of 5.5 French Francs for
Valley Farms, a limited liability private cocoa-producing
company, on behalf of GNPC.
Valley Farms contracted the loan from Caisse Française de
Devéloppement in 1991, but defaulted in its payment.
GNPC which acted as the guarantor was forced to pay the loan
in 1996, and being the CEO, Tsikata was consequently charged
with those offences, which had unfortunately landed him in
prison.
GNA
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