Supreme Court declines Opuni’s invitation to prohibit judge from hearing his case
In dismissing the case, the five-member panel presided over by Pwamang JSC noted that it was not convinced of the applicant’s allegation of bias on the part of the judge.
The Supreme Court has dismissed a recent application filed by the former CEO of COCOBOD, Dr. Stephen Opuni, which sought to prohibit the trial judge from continuing his case due to an alleged bias.
In dismissing the case, the five-member panel presided over by Pwamang JSC noted that it was not convinced of the applicant’s allegation of bias on the part of the judge.
Dr. Opuni told the apex court that the judge had exhibited several acts of bias since he took over the case and thus wouldn’t be fair to him.
He added that the judge had already taken a decision in the matters upon which he was presiding and, as such, wanted the apex court to prohibit him.
Arguing out the specifics of the motion, he noted that even though the High Court, on July 25, 2023, adopted the proceedings, the same was not made available to his side.
Further to this, the former COCOBOD CEO said that he was alarmed by the fact that the judge said that he wouldn’t make a further order for the proceedings to be given to his legal team.
On its part, the state, led by Chief State Attorney Evelyn Keelson, who was opposed to the application, noted that the applicant had failed to raise any credible issues of bias, adding that he had failed to invoke the court’s jurisdiction properly.
Background
Dr. Opuni and Seidu Agongo, the CEO of Agricult Ghana Limited, are on trial for allegedly engaging in illegalities in a series of fertilizer transactions, which the Attorney-General (A-G) says caused a financial loss of GH¢271.3 million to the state.
They were thus dragged to court by the A-G in March 2018 on 27 charges, including willfully causing financial loss to the state, defrauding by false pretense, contravention of procurement laws, corruption of a public officer, and money laundering.
