Konadu Jams As Court Adjourns Case

Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the former first lady, in the company of Sherry Ayitey, treasurer of 31st December Women's Movement (DWM), danced for about five minutes to gospel tunes from brass bands on the premises of the Accra Fast Track High Court after her trial was adjourned last Wednesday. Nana Konadu's supporters had thronged the premises of the High Court to offer their usual moral support in her on-going trial for alleged fraudulent divestiture of GIHOC Nsawam Cannery. Some of the supporters held recent pictures of the former President and a member of the Black Stars team, Manuel Junior Agogo while they shouted aloud "Ene ba do Kufuor Waa Dientse" in Ga, meaning "This would really make Kufuor jealous." Junior Agogo is said to be Rawlings' nephew. Even though the courtroom where the trial was supposed to take place was filled to capacity with the former first lady and the four other accused persons present, the case was not called as the Acting Director for Public Prosecutions, Miss Gertrude Aikins, was not in court but had sent a representative. A few minutes after everyone was seated waiting for the trial Judge, Justice Richard Acquaye, the representative from the Attorney General's Department as well as the counsel for Konadu, Tony Lithur walked into the chambers of the Judge. They returned a few minutes later and Lithur told the accused persons that the trial had been adjourned to April 16, 2008. Disappointed members of DWM of which Nana Konadu is president, then walked out of the courtroom, brass bands started jamming as soon as an elderly woman came out ahead of Nana and her entourage and signaled them into action. The former first lady and Sherry Ayitey were cheered on by supporters and members of the National Democratic Congress as they danced, before Nana Konadu walked down the road to sit in her Toyota four wheel drive. Former president, Jerry John Rawlings and his personal aide, Mr. Victor Smith, who usually accompanied her to court, were missing, as was the Shilo Bloody 64 Group with their infamous flag of an elderly man pounding a baby with a pestle in a mortar with blood sputtering out. Other accused persons in the trial include Emmanuel Amuzu Agbodo; Thomas Benson Owusu; Kwame Peprah, former Finance Minister; and Caridem Development Company, belonging to DWM, which purportedly bought the cannery under fraudulent circumstances with forged signatures. The whole deal was said to have cost the state ¢9.2 billion as due process in the divestiture of the state-owned enterprise was allegedly not followed. The accused persons are facing 15 charges including conspiracy to commit crime, stealing, conspiracy to alter documents and altering of documents. Attempts by Konadu to have the court stay proceedings against her till the final determination of a civil suit she had filed against the Attorney General and the Divesture Implementation Committee have so far proved unsuccessful.