Collins Dauda
A High Court in Accra yesterday discharged former Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda and three others standing trial for their alleged roles in the Saglemi Housing scandal.
This follows the decision of the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine to discontinue the trial by filing a Nolle Prosequi.
This could just be a temporary relief for the accused persons, as a future Attorney General may decide to reopen the case, if he or she finds that the entry of the Nolle Prosequi was not based on sound legal grounding.
This is in line with Section 54(3) of Act 30 which states that “the discharge of the accused shall not operate as a bar to subsequent proceedings against the accused in respect of the same case.”
Trial
The Asutifi Member of Parliament (MP) together with three others – Kweku Agyeman-Mensah, Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu and Nouvi Tetteh Angelo were standing trial for wilfully causing financial loss to the state in the $200 million Saglemi Housing project scandal.
They were facing 70 charges of willfully causing financial loss to the state, issuing false certificate contrary to Sections 1 and 2 of the Government Contracts (Protection) Act, 1979, AFRCD 58 and dishonestly causing loss to public property contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Public Protection Act, 1977 (SMCD) 140, and intentionally misapplying public property.
Hilda Craig, a Principal State Attorney, told the court yesterday that the Office of the Attorney General had filed a Nolle Prosequi on February 7, 2025, hence asked the court to discharge the accused persons.
“We are here to inform the court of our entry of Nolle Prosequi in this case filed on Feb 7, 2025. It means that case has come to an end at this point, and the accused persons can be discharged at this point pursuant to the filing of the Nolle Prosequi,” she told the court.
Asked by the trial judge, Justice Ernest Owusu-Dapaa whether the prosecution would not rearrest the accused persons after dropping the case, Ms. Craig said, “No, my Lord. We will not do that.”
The defence lawyers did not oppose the application filed by the prosecution but took turns to express their gratitude to the Attorney General for dropping the charges against their clients.
Justice Owusu-Dapaa, in a short ruling, indicated that the prosecution of criminal cases is at the instance of the Attorney General and any other person he delegates such powers to, and he can initiate and terminate criminal cases at any time.
He added that in spite of the process exhausted in the matter, including the taking of evidence, accused persons who are still alive are discharged based on the entry of Nolle Prosequi.
Scandal
The prosecution had alleged that the state pumped about $200 million into the Saglemi Housing project which the Mills/Mahama administration initiated, but the housing units were never completed even though the funds had allegedly been exhausted before Mr. Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost the 2016 general election.
The initial agreement ratified by Parliament was for the construction of 5,000 housing units, but by the time the project was being executed, only 1,502 housing units had been earmarked for construction without recourse to Parliament.
However, the contract amount of $200 million was spent when even the 1,502 housing units could not fully be completed.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak