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An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour has sentenced three of the five persons standing trails in the case of “The Republic versus Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie and four others”.
The case was filed by the State at the High Court Registry in December 2017.
After years of wrangling around the case, the Accra High Court has finally convicted three out of the five persons standing trails.
Mr. Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie who is a former National Communication Authority (NCA) Board Chairman alongside William Tetteh Tevie, a former NCA Director-General and Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman were the three out of the five accused persons convicted to a total of sixteen years in prison today.
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They were convicted on the charges of causing huge financial loss to the state.
The first accused who essentially was the architect of the entire deal used his public office for private benefit to the tune of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000.00).
Dr. Nana Owusu Ensaw who was part of the five accused persons, was not mentioned at all in the judgement because he had already been acquitted and discharged by the Court of Appeal on the 25th of March 2020 whilst George Derek Oppong was also acquitted and discharged.
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According to the facts of the case as presented by the Attorney General, Baffoe-Bonnie, Tetteh Tevie, Nana Owusu Ensaw and Alhaji Osman were allegedly aided by George Derek Oppong to engage in the criminal act. The brief facts state that the previous administration had contracted an Israeli company, NSO Group Technology Limited, to supply a listening equipment at a cost of $6 million to enable the authorities to monitor conversations of persons suspected to be engaged in terror activities. A local agent, Infraloks Development Limited, charged $2 million to facilitate the transaction, bringing the total sum to $8 million.
The facts further explained that the National Security did not have the money to fund the transaction and for that reason the NCA, which had supervisory jurisdiction over the use of such equipment, was asked to fund the project.
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It said $4 million was withdrawn from the NCA’s account, while $1 million out of the withdrawn amount was deposited into the account of the Israeli company. The A-G explained that the remaining $3 million was lodged in the account of Oppong, who acted as a representative of the local agents, Infraloks Development Ltd.
The State closed its case against the accused persons on the 18th of April 2019, following which the accused persons chose to exercise their rights under section 173 of Criminal and Other Offences Procedure Act (Act 30) to file ‘Submissions of No Case.
