The trial of the former chief executive officer of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) Solomon Asamoah and the fund’s erstwhile board chairman, Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, over the mothballed Sky Train project has taken a new twist as the defence has accused the prosecution’s first witness, Yaw Odame-Darkwa, of testifying against the accused in order to escape liability.
During further cross-examination of the witness, Victoria Barth, counsel for Solomon Asamoah, suggested to the witness, who was a member of the GIIF board, that he agreed to be a prosecution witness only to escape liability for the alleged lack of approval for the Sky Train project.
Odame-Darkwa, a former head of the board’s audit committee, who sometimes gives long-drawn-out answers to questions, simply said, “That is not true.”
Barth made the accusation after the witness admitted that at the time he gave a cautioned statement to officers at the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), he was under investigation for stealing and causing financial loss to the state.
Before that, the defence lawyer had suggested to the witness that the only reason he became a witness for the prosecution was that he had “denied that the board had approved of the Sky Train project and the disbursement in respect of that project”.
This question was opposed by the deputy attorney general, Justice Srem-Sai, who submitted that it was unfair to the witness.
He argued that who becomes an accused person is a matter of prosecutorial discretion, to be exercised by the Attorney General, not by a potential accused person.
“The witness is not in a position to say the factors that the Attorney General considered in not charging him. It is deemed that there was no evidence against him, and that is exactly why this question is unfair, and I pray that my lady will disallow this question,” he said.
The objection was opposed by Victoria Barth, who argued that the prosecution may exercise discretion in deciding whom to field as witnesses, but these witnesses make a decision independently whether to serve as prosecution witnesses.
“This court has before it documentary evidence tendered without objection as to their authenticity, as this witness has agreed, for instance, that signed minutes of a board are the evidence of what transpired at the meetings covered by those minutes and not the individual recollection of members who attended those meetings,” she said.
Barth further argued that it is not in dispute that there are financial statements in evidence before the court which contain disbursements on the Sky Train project. These disbursements are among the audited financial statements approved by the same GIIF board of which the witness is a member, she said.
“The fact that a witness says I do not remember does not change the documentary effect of the evidence before the court,” Barth argued.
She argued further that when a witness “somersaults” from being a suspect to a prosecution witness in the face of the admitted facts before the court, it is wholly appropriate to ask that witness what accounts for the change in status.
“I’m not asking him to tell me what accounts for the prosecution’s reasoning. I’m asking about him being used as a prosecution witness because he is telling a story that supports the prosecution’s charges,” she said.
The court, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, overruled the objection by the deputy attorney general and asked the witness to answer the question. Responding, Odame-Darkwa said, “As I sit here, I don’t know why I was made a prosecution witness.”
Victoria Barth then suggested to the witness that his denial that there was board approval for the Sky Train project was “partly because you did not understand the structure of that project”.
The witness disagreed, stating: “That is your position, not mine.”
“I’m suggesting to you that your denial of recorded statements in the minutes before this court is because you did not pay attention when the events recorded in those minutes took place,” the lawyer argued, pushing further.
Again, the witness disagreed.
Barth also suggested to Odame-Darkwa that his alleged lack of knowledge that a disbursement of $2 million for the Sky Train project had been approved “is because you failed to carefully review board pacts sent to you via email”. Again, the witness disagreed with this assertion.
The defence lawyer finally put it to the witness that he had told “half-truths” to the court. “No, my lady,” the witness responded.
The case was adjourned to Thursday (5 February) to permit counsel for Professor Ameyaw-Akumfi to cross-examine the witness.
Background
In 2019, the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund invested US$2 million for a 10% stake in Africa Investor Skytrain Consortium Holdings (“Ai Skytrain”), the company developing Accra’s Sky Train light railway project.
The Africa Investor Group (the “sponsors”) was selected and granted the rights to develop the project by the Government of Ghana (GoG) through the Ministry of Railway Development (MoRD).
At the time, the chairman of GIIF was Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi and the chief executive officer (CEO) was Solomon Asamoah. The chairman had previously been a member of the GoG. Asamoah had been an international development banker and was headhunted for the position by a UK recruitment agency.
Following the change of government in Ghana in December 2024, the GoG, acting through the office of the Attorney General of Ghana, alleged that the action was taken without board approval, resulting in wilful financial loss to the state, because there is as yet “no railway built”.
It is worth noting that there are no allegations of personal gain or diversion of funds in the charges, and the state has not charged anyone from MoRD or the GoG-selected sponsors; only the GIIF ex-chairman and ex-CEO have been charged.
The state witnesses who themselves initially faced charges of causing financial loss to the state had their charges dropped after they said they did not approve the project — a move which cast significant doubt on the reliability of their statements.
The prosecution’s case is built almost entirely on these statements to show that a transaction that the former GIIF leaders say was legitimate was “unauthorised”. Without this, there would be no case to answer.
“The prosecution’s case appears to be politically motivated, intended to fulfil [an election] campaign promise to prosecute members of the previous government,” a lawyer familiar with the case told Asaase News, on condition of anonymity. “It is unsupported by the facts, relying on demonstrably false witness statements.”
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