The lawyers for the former Director-General of the National Signal Bureau, Kwabena Adu Boahene, have applied to the High Court to grant their client and his wife, Angela Boateng bail.
They claim that the bail terms granted by the Economic and Organised Crome Office (EOCO), is “burdensome.”
This is contained in an affidavit cited by 3news dated March 25.
The affidavit lists the Economic and Organised Crime Office and the Attorney-General as 1st and 2nd respondents respectively.
According to the lawyers, “The Respondents with a clear motive to incarcerate the Applicants beyond the 48-hour period as spelt out by the Constitution has imposed burdensome and unreasonable conditions on the Applicants as the precondition for their granting them bail. These onerous conditions for bail are as follows:
i. The 1st Applicant is to post bail in the sum of One Hundred and Twenty Million Ghana Cedis (GH0120,000,000.00) to be justified.
ii. The 2nd Applicant is to post bail in the sum of Eighty Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢80,000,000.00) and also to be justified.”
Led by Samuel Atta Akyea, the lawyers complained to the court that, ” The officers of the 1st Respondent would not release the Applicants from the EOCO cells to sit with me to conduct my professional work. The officers of the 1st Respondent insisted that I should engage the Applicants at the counter of the cells while they listen and record the lawyer-client interaction. ”
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine at a press conference on March 24 accused Mr Adu Boahene and his wife of unexplained wealth for which reason they have been arrested and placed into custody by the EOCO.
“Investigations have also established that money mostly proceeds of crime from Advantage Solutions Limited and BNC Communications Bureau Limited and other similar sources have been transmitted under very suspicious circumstances through the bank accounts of these companies.
“The investigations have revealed so far that the suspect and his wife have registered companies which we are currently tracking, there are about ten companies we are tracking that they created with Advantage Solutions mostly owning all the companies. For purposes of the investigations that is ongoing, we are not going to disclose those companies.
“But I want to warn any executive, director or employee of each of the companies knowing that Mr Adu Boahene has been arrested. If they make movement of assets we will track and arrest them and prosecute them,” Dr Ayine disclosed.
Mr Atta Akyea averred that, “the Respondents have committed a constitutional infraction in denying the Applicants their right to counsel and shall continue to do so until the court intervenes in this travesty of justice. The Applicants do not even have the power to interfere with the investigations at the behest of the Respondents.”
He assured the court that his clients are ready comply with any reasonable bail terms.
“The Applicants are ready to meet the necessary and reasonable conditions that the Honourable Court may impose on them to ensure that they appear before the Respondents to continue their investigations, if any,” Mr Atta Akyea said.
” The Applicants are well-meaning Ghanaian couple and are properly circumstanced in society and have responsible individuals who are ready to stand as sureties for their bail. In the premises, the Applicants pray the court for bail pending investigations,” he pleaded.
