National Service boss granted GH¢90m bail

• Posted on November 18, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, the immediate past Executive Director of the National Service Secretariat (NSS), was yesterday granted bail by the Economic, Financial and Tax Division of an Accra High Court.

This was after Cynthia Lamptey, Director of Public Prosecution, had once again told the court that the police had not yet completed their investigations into the matter.

The trial judge, Justice Georgina Mensah-Datsa, had at the last adjourned date remanded Alhaji Imoro at the instance of prosecution, with the explanation that the police claim they had not completed their investigations into the alleged charges of stealing preferred against the accused.

The NSS boss is standing trial over allegations that he had, from the month of September 2013 to July 2014, at the NSS headquarters in Accra, stolen GH¢86.9 million belonging to the Government of Ghana.

According to prosecution, investigation  so far revealed that for every month—starting from September 2013 to July this year—an amount of GH¢7.9 million was paid to 22,612 non-existent or ‘ghost’  service persons.

However, at the trial of the case, Ms Lamptey told the court that the offence for which the accused had been brought to face the law was bailable and that to grant bail or not was at the discretion of the court.

She said the police would be able to finish with their investigations in a fortnight.

Dennis Adjei Dwumor, lead counsel for the accused, repeated his earlier application for bail for his client.

He said with the state leaving the decision to grant bail to the discretion of the court, it was evident the prosecution was not opposed to the bail application.

According to Mr Adjei Dwumor, it is obvious the state cannot tell the court when it intends to conclude investigations, insisting the court ought to take into consideration the human rights of the accused person.

He reminded the court that granting of bail must not be used as a “punitive power” against the accused person.

“In balancing the accused person’s human rights, we would like the court to grant the accused person bail, pursuant to Section 96 of the Criminal Procedure Code,” he said.

Mr Adjei Dwumor indicated that Alhaji Imoro has worked with the state for more than 25 years, has a fixed place of abode at Osu, a suburb of Accra, and would not abscond if granted bail.

GH¢90m Bail

After a long legal battle between both sides, Justice Mensah-Datsa granted the former NSS boss bail in the sum of GH¢90 million, with three sureties, all to be justified with property worth GH¢1 million.

He is also to report himself to the BNI three times in a week or any other days upon the request of the BNI.

Alhaji Imoro, as part of his bail conditions, must surrender his travelling passport to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).

Meanwhile, Imoro has pleaded not guilty to the charge of stealing GH¢86.9 million belonging to the Government of Ghana through payments made to ghost or non-existent service persons.

He is to reappear on December 8.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson