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An Accra High Court has ruled that the prosecution can continue building its case against the former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah.
The prosecution started leading its key witness in evidence in support of its case on January 20, 2026. However, Oware-Mensah’s lawyers stalled the questioning through a motion for the suspension of the trial.
The defence has consistently demanded that the presiding judge halt proceedings to allow them to challenge the court’s directive for the accused person to file the names and addresses of her witnesses in accordance with part 2(3a) of the Practice Direction.
The Practice Direction is a Supreme Court document that governs criminal cases in all courts with criminal jurisdiction in Ghana.
The defence had also prayed the court to allow it to go to the Court of Appeal to appeal the High Court’s decision. But Justice Kocuvi-Tay had indicated that no law had been violated by the court to warrant a freeze on proceedings.
When the case was called again on Wednesday, April 15, the judge struck out another application to pause the trial before scheduling May 11, 2026, as the date for the prosecution to continue its case.
Oware-Mensah’s lawyer, Nanabanyin Ackon, had reiterated the defence’s longstanding argument for the court to suspend proceedings. He had earlier filed an interim injunction at the Court of Appeal and another writ at the Supreme Court challenging the interpretation of the Practice Direction.
Principal State Attorney, Dufie Prempeh, rejected the defence team’s motion to suspend proceedings as lacking substance.
“This court has the inherent power to prevent frivolous applications, procedural manipulations, and the delay of the criminal trial. The timing of this application, coupled with the nature of the issue raised strongly points to an attempt to delay the trial rather than to resolve any constitutional question,” she said. “The application does not meet the threshold for the grant of the stay.”
She added that the issue before the Supreme Court is not fundamental to the trial. She insisted that “proceedings can continue and any potential decision of the Supreme Court can still be given effect.”
After listening to the arguments for and against the stay of proceedings, Justice Kocuvi-Tay dismissed the application.
Background
Since January 20, 2026, one issue has dominated and stalled Mrs Oware-Mensah’s criminal trial – her lawyer’s opposition to her filing the names and addresses of her witnesses, which the court ordered on December 22, 2025.
On March 24, the Court dismissed a request by her lawyers to pause the trial while awaiting an appeal against an earlier ruling on the same matter.
The case against the former executive of the NSA stems from a series of investigative stories by The Fourth Estate in 2025. They revealed how thousands of ghost names, fictitious or ineligible individuals, including toddlers, 90-year-olds, and people with no verifiable ties to tertiary institutions, were padded into the Authority’s database. These phantom personnel were allegedly recruited through rigged posting schemes, enabling the government to pay out millions of cedis in allowances to non-existent national service personnel.
The exposé spotlighted profound failures in value-for-money safeguards, data integrity, and overall institutional credibility surrounding the Centralised Service Management Platform (CSMP). Far from serving as a defense against fraud, as NSA officials had publicly claimed, the digital system had been exploited to bypass validation checks, generate fake student index numbers, and facilitate payments to ineligible or entirely fabricated beneficiaries.
The Office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice launched an independent probe, drawing heavily on evidence and leads from The Fourth Estate’s reporting. The Attorney-General’s investigation substantiated the scale of the malfeasance, confirming widespread financial irregularities orchestrated by senior NSA executives in collusion with private-sector vendors.
In October 2025, Attorney-General Dr. Dominic Ayine announced that the fraudulent schemes had resulted in the mismanagement and loss of more than GHS2.2 billion.
Criminal proceedings have since been initiated against key figures, including former NSA Executive Director Osei Assibey Antwi and his former Deputy Director Gifty Oware-Mensah, who face multiple charges, including stealing, causing financial loss to the state, and money laundering.
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