The Member of Parliament for Manhyia South, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah has been granted a GH¢10 million bail with two sureties by the High Court in Accra.
His two sureties are the members of Parliament for Bosome Freho and Effia, who were all present in court.
The court directed Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah to deposit his passport with the Court Registry.
The Ghana News Agency (GNA) reports that Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit crime, causing financial loss of GH¢9.85 million to the state and money laundering, arising from alleged financial transactions involving SIC Life Savings and Loans when he was arraigned on Saturday.
The court, presided over by Justice Charity Akosua Asem, a Court of Appeal Judge sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court Judge, also ordered the MP to make himself available to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) whenever required for investigations.
The prosecution, led by Dr Justice Srem-Sai, Deputy Attorney-General, did not oppose the grant of bail but urged the court to impose conditions that would ensure the accused remained available to the court and investigators.
Dr Srem-Sai told the court that EOCO had made several attempts to secure Nana Baffour Awuah’s attendance during investigations and urged the court to take those circumstances into consideration in determining the bail conditions.
“I do not oppose bail, but I wish to draw the attention of the court to some factors to assist the court on the conditions of bail,” he said.
Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, counsel for Nana Baffour Awuah, urged the court to grant his client bail, arguing that the accused was a sitting MP and was not a flight risk or likely to interfere with investigations.
“The accused person is not a flight risk and he went to EOCO on his own volition. We are ready to comply with reasonable terms that the court may impose on us,” he said.
Mr Atta Akyea also drew the court’s attention to previous cases in which former Ministers had been granted bail on their own recognisance.
“We have two MPs in court who have elected to stand as sureties for the accused, who is a colleague,” he added.
The court directed the prosecution to file its disclosures by October 22, 2026, to enable it to conduct a Case Management Conference on November 2, 2026.
The case follows an investigation by EOCO into alleged financial transactions involving SIC Life Savings and Loans.
EOCO had earlier sought to secure Nana Baffour Awuah’ sattendance for questioning and subsequently obtained a High Court warrant for his arrest and the search and seizure of documents relevant to the investigation.
Nana Baffour Awuah, subsequently, reported himself to EOCO on October 1, 2026, accompanied by his lawyers.
He was detained and questioned as part of the investigation.
His lawyers have maintained that the transactions under investigation arose from legal work undertaken by his former law firm.
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Background
The MP’s arrest followed several months of what EOCO said were efforts to secure his attendance before investigators in connection with allegations relating to criminal conspiracy, financial loss to SIC Savings and Loans, money laundering, tax-related offences, and other matters under investigation.
The development followed a High Court warrant issued on September 30 authorising EOCO to arrest the MP after the agency told the court it had exhausted reasonable means of securing his voluntary attendance.
An earlier attempt by an EOCO officer to arrest the MP at the Accra High Court on September 23 resulted in a confrontation at the court premises, with the MP later describing the encounter as an attempted abduction.
The investigation concerns legal work carried out by the MP’s former law firm, Sarkodie Baffour Awuah & Partners, for SIC Life Savings and Loans Company Limited in an attempt to recover millions of cedis from Equity Savings and Loans.
