[2004]DLSC11117 • November 8, 2004 • Supreme Court •
TSATSU TSIKATA vs. THEREPUBLIC
The appellant, Tsatsu Tsikata, was charged with wilfully causing financial loss to the State under section 179A3a of the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29) as amended, and with intentionally misapplying public property contrary to section 12 of the Public Property Protection Decree, 1977 (SMCD 140). The charges arose from his role as Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in relation to a guarantee agreement signed in 1991 between GNPC and Caisse Francaise for a loan to Valley Farms Co Ltd, which defaulted, leading GNPC to make payments in 1996. The appellant challenged the charges on grounds including retroactivity, vagueness of the law, and insufficiency of evidence.
read morePROF OCRAN JSC delivered the judgment of the majority of the court. This case came before us by way of an appeal from the judgment of the Courtof Appeal, delivered on 27November 2003, in which the Court of Appeal upheld the rejection by the Fast Track High Court, Accra of a motion of submission of no case made by the appellant after the close of the prosecution's case. The appellant was arraigned before the Fast Track High Court, Accra on three counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the State, contrary to section I 79A(3)(a) of the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29), as amended by the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 1993 (Act 458); and on a fourth count of intentionally misapplying public property, contrary to section I (2) of the PubI ic Property Protection Decree, 1977 (SMCD 140). Counsel for the appellant and the Director of Public Prosecutions have obliged us respectively with "submissions on behalfof appellant" and "statementof case by the prosecution/respondent", along with...