Court rejects Abdul-Hamid’s adjournment request in NPA extortion case

The Accra High Court has rejected a request for a lengthy adjournment in the case involving former National Petroleum Authority Chief Executive Mustapha Abdul-Hamid and seven other accused persons.

Lead counsel Joseph Kpemka sought the adjournment on grounds including ill health, exhaustion and an upcoming Bar conference. The court declined the request and directed the parties to return the following day to continue the case management conference.

Mr Abdul-Hamid and his co-accused are standing trial over allegations that they extorted money from businesses operating in Ghana’s petroleum sector.

The allegations have not yet been determined by the court.

The case is currently at the pre-trial stage, where issues are being addressed ahead of the substantive proceedings.

Speaking to journalists after the hearing, Mr Kpemka said the defence team had attended court throughout the legal vacation and had not been absent from any scheduled proceedings.

“You recall that when we applied to the office of the CJ to waive the holidays for us to have the vacation, he actually indicated that adjournments are actually the discretion of trial courts and not the CJ,” he said.

He said the lawyers were advised to direct any request for an adjournment to the trial court.

“And we have attended court throughout the holidays. There’s no adjournment that we have been absent,” he added.

Mr Kpemka said several members of the defence team had been unwell and needed time to recover after what he described as an exhausting legal year.

“Counsel has been unwell. That’s one. And two, you know that the Bar conference is coming next week,” he said.

“We are exhausted. I mean, the legal year took a toll on us. We are all exhausted.”

The defence had hoped that proceedings would be adjourned until October, but the judge refused the request.

“My lord said that we should come back tomorrow and that he was not acceding to the prayer,” Mr Kpemka said.

“We are obliged to be in court tomorrow, and we will so be.”

He insisted that the request had not been made to delay the proceedings unnecessarily, citing ill health among counsel and the approaching Bar conference.

The accused persons previously applied to have the charge sheet struck out.

The High Court dismissed that application, allowing the case management process to continue.

Mr Abdul-Hamid served as Information Minister under former President Nana Akufo-Addo before being appointed chief executive of the National Petroleum Authority in 2021.

No response from the prosecution to the adjournment request was included in the supplied material.

The parties are expected to return to the Accra High Court for the continuation of the case management conference.