By Morkporkpor Anku
Accra, Feb. 10, GNA-An Accra High Court has dismissed an application filed by Gifty Oware-Mensah, a former Deputy Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), seeking a referral to the Supreme Court for interpretation over provisions in the practice directions for case management in criminal trials.
This is pursuant to a court directive requiring Gifty Oware-Mensah to file a list of witnesses she intends to call, along with their addresses, should she be invited to open her defence.
According to her lawyers, they were of the view that the requirement was inconsistent with provisions of the 1992 Constitution, arguing that it infringed on the constitutional rights of an accused person to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The defence asked the High Court to refer the constitutional question to the Supreme Court for interpretation.
Meanwhile, a motion filed for a stay of proceedings on February 10, 2026, is pending before the Court.
Initially, the motion was scheduled to be heard on February 17, 2026, but was rescheduled to February 18, 2026.
Mrs Oware-Mensah is facing five counts of criminal charges filed by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.
These charges include stealing, willfully causing financial loss, using public office for profit, and money laundering.
The brief facts indicated that Mrs Oware-Mensah, who oversaw the NSA’s Finance and Procurement Departments, allegedly engineered an elaborate scam involving the NSA’s “marketplace” platform, a system designed to provide hire-purchase services to service personnel.
The prosecution alleged that she took control of a private company, Blocks of Life Consult, and generated a list of 9,934 ghost names from the NSA’s system.
She then approached the Agricultural Development Bank, falsely claiming her company had supplied goods to these ghosts and needed a loan, using their non-existent allowances as collateral.
This led to her orchestrating a loan agreement between Adb and the NSA, resulting in a GH¢31.5 million disbursement directly into her company’s account.
She subsequently transferred over GH¢22.9 million of this amount to another company where she was a Director.
According to the fact sheets, no goods were ever supplied to any service personnel.
With accrued interest, her actions allegedly caused a total loss of GH¢38,458,248.87 to the State.
GNA
10 Feb. 2026
Edited by Samuel Osei-Frempong