The Accra High Court has set August 17 for the lawyers of former NAFCO CEO Hanan Abdul-Wahab Aludiba and his wife, Faiza Seidu Wuni, to address the court on their application to stay proceedings pending appeal.
Hanan Aludiba and his wife Faiza Wuni have been charged with multiple offences including stealing, causing financial loss to the state and money laundering.
Both Godfred Yeboah Dame and Augustine Obour were absent when the case was called on August 12.
Hanan Aludiba and his wife explained that their lawyers took ill after petitioning the Chief Justice to stop the court sittings during the legal vacation.
The former NAFCO CEO further explained that Richard Gyambibi, his lawyer’s second in command, was out of town marking scripts for the Ghana School of Law.
He added that he had been handed a copy of an application to stay proceedings filed at the Court of Appeal and hence pleaded with the court for a long adjournment by which time his counsel would have recovered and their application would be heard.
But Deputy Attorney-General Dr Justice Srem-Sai opposed the plea for adjournment. He told the court that Godfred Dame had already indicated he would not be able to conduct the trial during the legal vacation and hence would be absent.
“It is important that when a lawyer is unable to attend proceedings there is an established way of doing it. That is not what we are seeing in this particular instance. We are entirely in your hands. The repeat application at the Court of Appeal is not an automatic stay of proceedings.
If counsel wanted medical condition to be a basis for anything in this court he could have honoured this court with documentary evidence. He has previously dealt with the health of his client and rightly required his client to bring a medical excuse duty. Counsel is not unaware of what to do in the circumstances. We believe that by not sending medical excuse duty, counsel does not intend to use his medical condition as a basis for not attending court not wise when he had already informed the court why he would not be attending proceedings during the vacation,” the Deputy A-G argued
“We pray that proceedings continue in the normal course,” he added.
The presiding judge then adjourned the matter to August 17 to allow the defence counsel to appear before him to address the court on the application to stay proceedings pending their appeal of the court’s decision.
By Laud Adu-Asare
