The Supreme Court has rejected an application to temporarily halt the High Court proceedings against Gifty Oware-Mensah, the former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority, who is on trial for allegedly causing the state a financial loss of over GH¢38 million. The application, submitted by her lawyer Gary Nimako Marfo, sought to suspend the High Court trial until the Supreme Court could decide on the constitutionality of a practice direction requiring the accused to submit the names and addresses of witnesses’ statements, if any, during the Case Management Conference.
In its ruling on May 19, 2026, the five-member panel led by Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie determined that, even if the accused wished to challenge the constitutionality of the practice direction, the High Court trial could continue. “After reviewing the processes so far, we find that the application for a stay does not meet the threshold required to halt proceedings,” Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie stated. He added that while the applicant may pursue the constitutional interpretation of the practice direction, the High Court proceedings are allowed to proceed.
Background
In October 2025, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, charged Oware-Mensah for allegedly generating 9,934 ghost names on the NSA Central Management System.
The prosecution alleges that she subsequently took control of Blocks of Life Consult Limited by making her mother’s driver one of the company’s directors and presented the company to ADB. She reportedly explained to the bank that she had supplied goods on hire-purchase to the 9,934 ghost names and intended to use their allowances as collateral to secure a facility. According to the prosecution, the scheme allegedly enabled her to fraudulently obtain GH¢38,458,248.87 from the bank through source deductions from the allowances of the 9,934 non-existent names over an 11-month period.
She has been charged with five counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit and money laundering.
Oware-Mensah has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been admitted to bail by the High Court presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay. During a case management conference, the trial court directed the accused person to file the list of defence witnesses and their addresses.
Her lawyers contend that the order for her to file the list of defence witnesses and their addresses was inconsistent with Article 19(2)(c) of the 1992 Constitution, the provision that presumes anyone charged with a criminal offence is innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Practice directions
Practice directions are not part of the laws of Ghana but form part of the administration of justice. The Practice Direction Disclosure and Case Management in Criminal Proceedings 2018, which was developed in 2018 and signed by the former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, governs criminal trials to ensure expeditious trials and proper management of cases.
Specifically, 2(3) (a) compels an accused person to disclose the names and addresses of all witnesses he or she intends to call at the case management stage.
It states, “Without prejudice to the constitutional presumption of the innocence of the Accused person, the Accused person shall, for purposes of case management, disclose the names and addresses of all witnesses he expects to call, should the Court call upon him to enter into his defence at the close of the case for the Prosecution”. It is this portion that the accused, through her lawyer, Gary Nimako Marfo, is challenging.
It is based on this that the accused was praying the court to refer the issue raised to the Supreme Court for interpretation. However, the trial judge dismissed the application to refer the case to the Supreme Court on the grounds that the accused failed to demonstrate the need for interpretation to warrant a stay of proceedings.
Attempts to halt the trial at the High Court has failed with the Supreme Court’s latest decision, climaxing the accused person’s available options to halt the trial.
Source: Justice Agbenorsi