Ghana’s opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has called on Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie to withdraw the warrants allowing judges to hear the cases of former National Signals Bureau (NSB) Director-General Kwabena Adu-Boahen and former National Food and Buffer Stock Company Limited (NAFCO) Chief Executive Officer Hanan Abdul-Wahab during the legal vacation.
The party wants both proceedings suspended until the legal term resumes, arguing that continuing them during the vacation goes against established practice governing the operation of vacation courts.
The request follows the Chief Justice’s decision to permit the cases to continue during the legal vacation, despite objections from lawyers representing the accused.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, 11 August, NPP General Secretary Justin Koduah Frimpong urged Mr Baffoe-Bonnie to reconsider the decision and allow the proceedings to restart once the vacation had ended.
“The New Patriotic Party therefore calls on the Chief Justice to immediately withdraw the warrants for vacation trials so that the affected cases resume, like all others, when the legal term reopens,” Mr Koduah said.
He also appealed to the Chief Justice to “heed the petition of the Ghana Bar Association and restore the settled practice governing vacation courts.”
The NPP’s intervention came after a High Court ruling on Tuesday concerning the case involving Mr Adu-Boahen and his wife, Angela Adjei-Boateng. The court said the couple could be required to continue cross-examining a prosecution witness if their lawyers did not attend the next sitting.
The party has called for that direction to be withdrawn, arguing that the accused should not be forced to continue with the proceedings without lawyers of their choice.
It said the Chief Justice should “ensure that Monday’s ultimatum to the accused is rescinded, since no person may be compelled to stand trial without counsel of his own choosing.”
The issue arose after separate petitions were submitted by lawyers Samuel Atta Akyea and Godfred Dame, who represent Mr Adu-Boahen and Mr Hanan Abdul-Wahab respectively. Both lawyers challenged the warrants authorising the judges handling the cases to sit during the legal vacation.
They told the court that they had professional commitments during the vacation and asked for the trials to be postponed until October. Their position was that proceeding during the break would create difficulties for counsel who had already made arrangements for the period.
Chief Justice Baffoe-Bonnie rejected those requests. He maintained that decisions on adjournments are matters for the courts and should not be treated as administrative issues that are automatically suspended during the legal vacation.
The case involving Mr Adu-Boahen has since been adjourned to 17 August 2026 for further case management proceedings. The NPP, however, continues to press for both cases to be halted until the legal term resumes and for the warrants permitting vacation hearings to be withdrawn.
