Former Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) Chief Executive Officer Solomon Asamoah has escalated his legal battle in the SkyTrain case to the Supreme Court after the High Court rejected his submission of no case to answer.
Mr Asamoah has filed two applications at the apex court seeking to halt further proceedings in the case and overturn key decisions of the High Court.
Deputy Attorney-General Dr Justice Srem-Sai disclosed on Saturday, August 22, that lawyers for Mr Asamoah filed the applications on Thursday, August 21, after the deadline granted by the High Court for the accused persons to file their defences had expired.
The first application seeks an order of certiorari to quash the High Court’s decision dismissing Mr Asamoah’s submission of no case to answer, as well as the variation of his bail conditions.
His second application is for an interlocutory injunction to suspend the High Court proceedings until the Supreme Court determines the certiorari application.
The development comes after both Mr Asamoah and his co-accused, former GIIF Board Chairman Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, failed to file their respective defences despite being given additional time by the High Court.
The High Court on July 2 dismissed their submissions of no case and directed them to file their defences within 21 days.
When that period expired without a defence being filed, the accused persons instead applied for a stay of proceedings.
The court subsequently granted them a further 21 days on July 30, extending the total period available to them to 42 days.
That extended deadline expired on August 20, but neither accused had filed a defence, according to the Deputy Attorney-General.
The High Court has since scheduled the case for a case management conference on Monday, August 24.
However, the Supreme Court has fixed August 27 to hear Mr Asamoah’s application for an interlocutory injunction.
The timing of the Supreme Court application could therefore have implications for the continuation of the High Court proceedings, depending on how the apex court handles the request for an injunction.
Background to SkyTrain Case
The case centres on a US$2 million payment allegedly made by GIIF in 2019 towards an equity stake in a company associated with the proposed Accra SkyTrain project.
The prosecution alleges that the payment was made without the required approvals and that the proposed project ultimately failed to materialise.
The prosecution concluded its case in May, prompting Mr Asamoah and Professor Ameyaw-Akumfi to file submissions of no case to answer.
The High Court, however, ruled that the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence to require the two accused persons to open their defence.
Mr Asamoah’s latest move before the Supreme Court now seeks to challenge that decision while also attempting to prevent the High Court trial from progressing before the apex court determines his application.
