The Accra High Court has adjourned the case involving the convicted former Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, over an alleged GH¢30 million financial loss to the Ghana Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank), to November 2 and 3, 2026, to enable the court and defence counsel to study the prosecution’s disclosures.
The adjournment followed the prosecution’s failure to make the disclosures available to the court, while counsel for the accused persons, Samuel Atta Akyea, said he obtained his copy of the documents from the court registry on October 27, 2026.
The Deputy Attorney-General, Dr Justice Srem-Sai, who led the prosecution in court on Tuesday (October 27), told the court that the State had filed and served the disclosures on the defence in two batches, with the first filed on October 23 and the second on October 26.
However, the court said it had not received a copy of the disclosures.
More time
Mr Atta Akyea, in response, said he had collected the documents from the registry and needed time to study them before the case could proceed.
“I was going to invite the court to give me some latitude to peruse the documents. Because the liberty of the individual is at stake, I should be able to read through,” he said.
The court, presided over by Justice Halimah El-Alawa Abdul-Baasit, subsequently adjourned the case to allow the court to receive the disclosures and give counsel reasonable time to examine them.
The prosecution is yet to call a witness in the Exim back case.
Background
Mr Antwi-Boasiako is standing trial alongside Thomas Antwi-Boasiako, who is at large, and Wontumi Farms Limited over an alleged financial loss of more than GH¢30 million to Exim Bank.
The prosecution alleges that the accused persons obtained GH¢14.302 million from the bank in 2018 through false pretences in connection with a proposed farming project.
The five charges against Mr Antwi-Boasiako include defrauding by false pretence, two counts of uttering forged documents, money laundering and intentionally causing financial loss to a public body.
The prosecution further alleges that documents presented to secure funding for the project were forged or altered and that the proposed farming activities were not undertaken.
Mr Antwi-Boasiako has pleaded not guilty to all five charges.
