GACL probe: ‘OSP’s bail terms unreasonable; calculated to keep Adom-Otchere in custody’ — Lawyer

Nicholas Lenin Anane Agyei, lawyer for the immediate past Board Chairman of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL), Paul Adom-Otchere, has criticised the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) over what he describes as unfair bail conditions.

The OSP detained Mr. Adom-Otchere, along with two other officials, in connection with a corruption-related investigation into a revenue assurance contract awarded by the GACL.

The broadcaster was held in custody on Thursday, July 31, after failing to meet a bail requirement that demanded two landed properties registered in his name.

Reacting to this on Accra-based Channel One TV, Lawyer Anane Agyei described the bail terms as unreasonable, unprecedented, and a calculated attempt to detain his client to settle personal scores.

“The challenge that the OSP has set is essentially to give the dog a bandage so that you can hang it, because it is unreasonable in the context of bail to require an accused person to produce properties in his own name,” he said.

“What the OSP is essentially saying is that persons who lack properties—or poor people in this country who do not own land—cannot meet bail. The shocking part is that while taking the suspect’s profile, he indicated that he does not own any landed property. And so, to set two landed properties in his name as a bail condition is essentially concluding to hang him. We find the bail conditions very unreasonable.”

Lawyer Anane Agyei added that the legal team may go to court to seek a variation of the bail conditions, which he believes are part of an attempt by Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng to punish Mr. Adom-Otchere due to his frequent public criticisms of the OSP.