[2018]DLSC85 • July 4, 2018 • Supreme Court •
THE REPUBLIC vs. COURT OF APPEAL EX-PARTE; ECONOMIC AND ORGANISED CRIME OFFICE, OLD PARLIAMENT HOUSE, ACCRA (NICHOLAS ANAMO-INTERESTED PARTY)
The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), a statutory body, investigated Nicholas Anamo for fraud and money laundering involving US$200,000. Nicholas Anamo was charged and acquitted by the High Court after a no case submission was upheld. EOCO appealed the acquittal and also appealed an order defreezing Anamo's accounts. The High Court granted a stay of execution on the defreezing order pending appeal. Anamo then successfully applied to the Court of Appeal to set aside the stay of execution, leading to the defreezing of his accounts. EOCO challenged the Court of Appeal's jurisdiction to set aside the stay of execution.
read moreMy Lords, the supervisory jurisdiction of this court has been invoked by the applicant herein to quash the order of the Court of Appeal dated the 9th of May, 2018 which order sought to set aside the order of Stay of Execution pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal. This application before us raises procedural matters which we have been called upon to resolve. To appreciate our reasons for this ruling a brief summary of the facts would suffice. The applicant herein, a statutory body established under an act of parliament conducted an investigation of the interested party herein involving fraud, money laundering in the sum of US$200,000 and other related offences. The interested party was subsequently charged before the High Court, Accra in a criminal matter titled: REPUBLIC v NICHOLAS ANAMO suit №. FT/0063/2016. After going through plenary trial the interested party made a submission of no case to answer at the close of the case for the prosecution. The trial High Court u.....