Osafo Maafo, Isaac Osei Win Case
HON YAW Osafo-Maafo, former Education, Youth and Sports Minister, Mr Isaac Osei, Ghana's former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and now chief executive of COCOBOD and one Yaa Helena of Kumasi, yesterday won a civil case instituted against them.
Hon Osafo-Maafo, MP for Oda and the High Commissioner were left off the hook when a Kumasi High Court dismissed a writ filed at the court, which had accused them of pocketing huge sums of money belonging to a former student in London; a case which hit the news stands recently.
The plaintiff in the case, Chancellor Oppong Kyekyeku Khol had dragged the government officials to court, asking that they be compelled to produce a total amount of £254,000 and a certificate, which he claimed were in their possession.
The plaintiff had filed the writ at the court on March 22, 2006, claiming a total amount of £254,000, being compensation he claimed was paid to him by the Home office and the Senate House University of London through the then Ghana's envoy to the UK when he was a student there, but which he claimed had been misappropriated by the defendants.
He had therefore prayed the court to award a cost it deemed reasonable against the defendants if he won the case.
In its ruling, the court presided over by His Lordship Justice K.A. Pobi, noted that the action brought against the high-ranking government officials lacked merit and was frivolous, hence calculated only to tarnish their hard-won reputation.
The judge said further that he found the writ and statement of claim filed by the plaintiff containing only wild allegations.
Justice Pobi told the court that the plaintiff's hundred-paragraph statement of claim did not accuse only the two government officials of corruption but blamed as well President Kufuor, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Foreign Affairs Minister and Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, for their complicity in the case.
The court however awarded no cost against the plaintiff, taking into consideration the intervention by a state attorney, asking counsel for the defendants, Mr Fred Frimpong to drop the ¢40 million he had wanted the court to award against the plaintiff.
In a motion brought to dismiss the writ, Mr Ohene Frimpong had described the plaintiff's directive as fraudulent, carrying no merit, arguing that the plaintiff's writ and statement of claim did not disclose any cause for action against the defendants.
The lawyer had told the court that he would discuss it with his clients to donate the ¢40 million cost to charity if it was awarded.
He however expressed regret that the ambassador and MP were not invited to give testimony in court, during the trial.
Chancellor Khol has said the money was in respect of an administrative error the university claimed for him over his LLB examination after 'the Snaresbrook Crown Court victory.'