Office of the Special Prosecutor has admitted it error in charges filed against the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayaariga.
Three of the charges leveled against the MP was struck out of court which according to the judge, had no link to corruption-related offences and were not also within the remit of the Special Prosecutor.
“When I got the judgment, I had no doubt that the judge in the case did the right thing by not pronouncing on the ability of the office to investigate and prosecute under the Customs Act or the Foreign Exchange Act,” Amidu said in an interview with the Daily Graphic newspaper.
Mr Ayaariga, the victim of prosecution is being accused of evading duties and taxes by paying GHc 6,6,062.86 used for clearing 3 V8 Land Cruisers. The approved fee the MP supposed to pay was GH¢36,597.15
The charges against him (Ayaariga) were fraudulent evasion of customs duties and taxes, dealing in foreign exchange without license and transfer of foreign exchange from Ghana through an unauthorized dealer.
The Special Prosecutor accepting it mistake noted that his office need to furnish Mr. Ayaariga with more details of the link between the foreign exchange offences and corruption-related offences.
According to the Special Prosecutor, he believes the mere mention of the Land Crusiers in his writ was enough of a link.
“In this case, counts one, three, four and five on our charge sheet regrettably fell short in the particulars in making any reference to any part of these offences having been allegedly perpetrated in furtherance of corruption,” he said.
Mr. Amidu said his office will be guided in the future to provide the needed particulars to back such charges.
“All we have to do is make sure our particulars meet the standard. I welcome the decision of the High Court and… I take ultimate responsibility for the lapse in the drafting,” he said.
What the judge did was to insist that there must be a connection between the breach of the customs offence or the foreign exchange offence in the “perpetuation of a corruption-related enterprise and this must be clearly stated and come out in the particulars of the offence,” Mr. Amidu added.
