The two sureties who executed the GHc5M bail conditions for the former CEO of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) were ordered to produce the accused today, December 22, 2022.

The Financial and Economic Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, now elevated to the Court of Appeal held that the former MASLOC boss has “absconded.”

In court on Thursday, December 22, when the case was called one of the defence Lawyers Beatrice Annan-Fio, for Gavivina Tamakloe said “We have exhausted every effort within our means but we have not been able to produce the first accused person.”

She, therefore, prayed the court to oblige them more time to be able to produce the accused whom is said to have undergone some medical procedure.

Lawyer Dr Abdul Basit Bamba and Lawyer Agbesi Dzakpasu, counsel for Alex Mould and Accused respectively added their voices for more time.

Justice Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe, who was one of 15 newly sworn-in Justices of the Court of Appeal by the President yesterday, said “I will give you time.”

While making a biblical allusion she said the Bible calls for the fulfilment of righteousness and that “I can only give you time after Christmas.”

The newly promoted Justice of the Court of Appeal said “You have until the holiday is over to produce the accused or provide compelling evidence why you need more time to produce the accused.”

According to EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, the court said failure to do so, the court will take a decision that “we all may not like.”

The case has since been adjourned to January 17, 2023, for the sureties to produce the first accused person.

Daniel Axim, the second accused person was present in court.

Forfeiture of sureties

The accused person has for the past year (October 2021) failed to appear in court for the trial to progress after she was given permission by the court to travel out of the country for a medical examination.

Ruling on an application for forfeiture of recognisance of sureties filed by the Attorney General’s department, Justice Afia Serwah Asare Botwe said, it is clear that the accused is no longer reasonably missing the trial for medical reasons.

The court said the sureties have since stopped bringing any medical letters to the court on the accused person.

Justice Asare-Botwe said the accused person had breached the terms of her bond and a liability accrues on the sureties.

Justice Afia Asare-Botwe, said, Forfeiture of bail bond becomes effective the moment the accused person jumps bail and the surety is unable to produce him or her.

The court said, it has drawn the conclusion that Mrs Attionu Tamakloe who is standing trial with one another has absconded as she has not shown up at the time she was supposed to.

The court also said, “the authorities have also made it clear that, if this happens you should give the sureties time to produce the accused person.”

Consequently, the court said, “I have given the sureties on or before 22 December 2022, to produce the accused person.”

Trial in absentia

The court is expected to consider the application for trial in absentia if the accused failed to show up.

Arguments

Moving the application for Forfeiture of recognizance of the sureties, Stella Ohene Appiah, a Principal State Attorney argues that the Ex MASLOC Boss having failed to return for the trial after being given leave to travel simply means that she has abandoned.

The lawyer for Gavivina said the application for the release of the passport to the accused person was not sent to him and he had no idea.

He added that the State did not oppose the application so he cannot be held responsible for her absence and that, the State has all the apparatuses to ensure the accused attends court.

The lawyer for Alex Mould, Dr Abdul Aziz Bamba argued that the State should take action to extradite the accused to come down and face trial.

He added that he is informed the accused is unwell and is seeking medical assistance in the States.

He argued that the Supreme Court has ruled that the court cannot commit a surety to prison and that, the execution of bail bond is a contract and one cannot put one in prison for failing to fulfil a contract.

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Background

Sedina Attionu is on trial with Daniel Axim, a former Operations Manager of MASLOC, on 78 counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the State, stealing, and contravention of the public procurement act, among other charges.

The two have denied any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The prosecution has accused Mrs Attionu of engaging in some illegalities leading to the alleged stealing and financial loss.

For instance, it has accused Mrs Attionu of embezzling GH¢500,000 that was paid by a company which benefitted from MASLOC support in 2014.

It is also the case of the prosecution that in 2013 following a fire disaster at the Kantamanto Market, then-President John Mahama directed MASLOC to provide assistance of GH¢1.46 million to victims of the disaster but Mrs Attionu embezzled part of the money.

The presiding judge, Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, also gave the two sureties who secured Mrs Attionu GH¢5 million bail up to the same day to produce her to stand trial or the court would slap them with a forfeiture of recognisance.

Forfeiture of recognisance means the two sureties — Alex Mould, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), and Gavivina Tamakloe would be made to pay the GH¢5 million bail sum.

Per Section 104 of the Criminal Offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30), if the two sureties are unable to produce Mrs Attionu to stand trial and also fail to pay the GH¢5 million bail sum, the court can order the sale of their property to recover the amount.

Justice Asare-Botwe gave a ruling yesterday on an application for forfeiture of recognisance filed by the prosecution due to the failure of Mrs Attionu to appear to stand trial since October last year.

Absent from court

Attionu, who is on trial for allegedly causing financial loss of GH¢90 million to the state during her tenure as the CEO of MASLOC between 2013 and January 2017, has failed to show up for the trial after being granted permission by the court to travel to the USA for medical treatment.

She was expected to return to Ghana for the continuation of her trial on October 6 last year.

In November last year, Justice Asare-Botwe expressed her displeasure about the situation and issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Mrs Attionu to force her to attend the trial.

Afterwards, the prosecution filed an application for trial in absentia.

It then followed up with an application for forfeiture of recognisance, which is directed at the two sureties who executed Mrs Attionu’s GH¢5 million bail bond to show any justification why they should not be made to pay the bail sum due to her absence from the trial.

Arguments

In the application for forfeiture of recognisance, the prosecutor, Stella Ohene Appiah, a Principal State Attorney, submitted that Mrs Attionu’s failure to show up in court for over a year was proof that she had abandoned the trial.

In response, counsel for Mr Mould, Beatrice Annanpio, urged the court not to rule for forfeiture of recognisanace because the state had all the resources and means to ensure that Mrs Attionu attended court for her trial.
Counsel for Gavivina Tamakloe, Dr Basist Aziz Bamba, said he was informed that Mrs Attionu was still seeking medical treatment in the United States.

He said if the state wanted to enforce the accused person’s presence for the trial, it had the option to extradite her from the United States to Ghana.

Ruling

In her ruling, Justice Asare Botwe said per a Supreme Court decision, sureties for bail could not be held criminally liable for the failure of accused persons to appear before court to stand trial.

A bail bond, she held, was a contract between an accused person and a surety, for which the surety had a responsibility to ensure that the accused person abided by the terms of the bail.

Mrs Attionu, she said, had breached the terms of her bail, for which reason the sureties must be held liable.

She, however, said per the various case laws and authorities, the sureties must be given time to produce Mrs Attionu before the order of forfeiture of recognisance could take effect.

“For this reason, I have given the sureties on or before December 22, 2022, to produce the accused person. A failure to produce her will result in a forfeiture of the bond,” Justice Asare-Botwe ruled.

The presiding judge, accordingly, adjourned the application for trial in absentia also to December 22, 2022.

“If the accused does not come by that time, the court will consider the application for trial in absentia,” she added.

Mr Mould, who is a former Executive Director of Standard Chartered Bank, said banks are not providing sufficient foreign currency needed to meet the payment of their maturing Letter of Credits (LCs) issued to international fuel traders.

“The banks are crying out that the Bank of Ghana is not able to provide enough foreign currencies (especially the U.S dollar), through its forex auctions, to meet their trading partners’ needs.

“This is causing BDC‘s to max out on their credit-line limits with their banks, and the implication is that the banks will no longer be able to finance fuel imports by October,” the petroleum and banking expert said in an interview.

“The current situation, if not addressed, could prove disastrous for the country as this could trigger a domino effect and  even imports of essential commodities could come to a grinding halt.

“As it stands, not only fuel shortage is imminent, but food items such as rice, sugar, protein food (fish, meats) and bakery products; it could be a bleak Christmas this year,” he added.

To salvage the situation, Mr Mould proffered that, “government needs to act decisively and quickly before International Banks’ Credit and Country Risk teams start reviewing downwards their Country-limits to Ghana, if they have not already done so since S&P’s recent downgrade – the last of the three major rating agencies that have downgraded Ghana this year.”

Such actions by the local bank’s International partners will cause FX credit crunch resulting in defaults by Ghanaian importers to their suppliers. This would only trigger a scramble for the scarce foreign exchange which could send the cedi spiraling in a free fall.

“GoG’s only choice is to accelerate their discussions with IMF to enter into an immediate Bridge-program whilst working on the main Take-Out Program, which sources suggest will kick in sometime in first quarter of 2023.”

A press statement issued by Mr Mould on Saturday said “it is truly sad to think that the Energy Ministry and for that matter, President Akufo-Addo’s government genuinely has so little understanding of this industry.”

The MoE in a response to Mr Mould last Monday said the amendments to the Petroleum Agreements of Aker Energy and AGM were to provide regulatory certainty and incentives to support the realisation of Aker’s Pecan Project and increase investment in the AGM block.

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But in his rebuttal, the former GNPC boss will have none of that.

Read the full statement below:

Elvina, a former worker of Springfield Exploration and Production Limited, was diagnosed of malaria in Mauritius when she traveled for the Christmas holidays and died on January 2, 2020.

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Her burial mass, held at the Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Accra, saw the Vice President, Dr Bawumia, Former President Mahama and other sympathisers in attendance.

Also present were some executives of the opposition National Democratic Congress and Members of Parliament.

Well-wishers, who could not attend the service, took to social media to send their condolences.

Read some tributes below:

Click here for more photos

However, the celebration of joy is rather being marked with her funeral in Accra following her death on January 2, 2020.

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Miss Moud, a former worker of Springfield Exploration and Production Limited, was diagnosed of malaria in Mauritius when she traveled for the Christmas holidays.

Reasons as to why her family decided to bury her on her birthday is still not known.

However, a burial mass in her honour was held at the Christ the King Roman Catholic Church near the Jubilee House in Accra and afterwards buried at the Gethsemane Memorial Gardens at East Legon in Accra.

Click here for more photos

A burial Mass is currently being held for Elvina, a former worker of Springfield Exploration and Production Limited (SEP) at the Christ the King Roman Catholic Church near the Jubilee House in Accra.

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Elvina Nah-Dansua Mould aged 27 died in Mauritius on January 1, 2020 after she was diagnosed of malaria during the Christmas holidays.

Mr Mould’s aide who confirmed her death disclosed she was quarantined after the diagnosis but the health agency in the Indian Ocean island country had little success in treating it.

More photos below: