SSNIT saga: Court orders release of Afaglo’s passport

The Criminal High Court has ordered the release of the passport of Caleb Kwaku Afaglo, the former head of Management Information System (MIS) at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

The Court presided by Henry Anthony Kwofie, an Appeal Court judge sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge gave the order after lawyers of Mr Afaglo filed an application demanding same.

Mr Afaglo together with the former Director General of SSNIT, Ernest Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, a former IT infrastructure manager at SSNIT, Juliet Hassana Kramer, CEO of Perfect Business Systems, and Peter Hayibor, a lawyer for SSNIT are standing trial for causing financial loss to the State.

They have been charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state and are facing trial over a $140 million Operating Business Suite (OBS) contract entered into and executed during their tenure as officers of SSNIT.

The five individuals are facing a total of 29 counts, ranging from willfully causing financial loss to the state, conspiracy to cause financial loss to the state, defrauding by false pretense, and contravention of public procurement authority act and authoring of forged documents.

The passports of the accused persons were seized as part of the bail conditions when the High Court granted them bail at their first appearance in Court when they were arraigned.

In an application before the Court, lawyers for Mr Afaglo argued that their client has need of his passport for a pending trip out of the country.

State prosecutors, on the other hand, indicated that the passport in question is with the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) and not with the Attorney General’s department and as such EOCO should have been party to the application.

Justice Anthony Kwofie’s Court in its ruling ordered the immediate release of the passport of the accused person to him forthwith.

source: starrfmonline