Court to begin trial of NDA CEO, deputies on April 4

The Tamale High Court has set April 4, to commence full trial of the case involving three former officials of the Northern Development Authority (NDA) and a private businessman.

The Special Prosecutor dragged the former Chief Executive Officer, Sumaila Abdul – Rahman, and his two deputies –Mr. Stephen Yir-eru Engmen and Mr. Patrick Seidu– to court over alleged procurement breaches.

According to the High Court, it will continue hearing the case on the 5th and 6th of April as well.

The court on Tuesday 28th February during the case management conference, went through all the documents filed and mentioned in the witness statements, as documents the prosecution intends to rely on.

After the case management conference, counsel for the accused persons and the state prosecutors told the court they were satisfied with the process.

Meanwhile, all four accused persons were present in court.

The criminal prosecution of the four follows a directive by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) after an investigation was conducted into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences at the Northern Development Authority.

This was in relation to a contract awarded to a consultancy company, A&Qs consortium under the Infrastructure for the Poverty Eradication Programme.

The complaint which was filed by a private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu accused the then Chief Executive Officer of the NDA, Sumaila Abdul – Rahman and two of his deputies, Stephen Yireru and Patrick Seidu of procurement breaches.

The report by the Office of the Special Prosecutor revealed that the actions of the four, directly and indirectly, influenced the procurement breaches.

The report added that the initial contract sum of five million seven hundred and twenty thousand cedis was illegally increased by four million six hundred and eighty thousand cedis, amounting to a total of Ten million four hundred thousand cedis without following the due process.

The action of the four according to the OSP offered an unfair advantage to A&Qs consortium.