Kufuor used Justice Henrietta Abban as a tool against me – Tsatsu

Former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Tsatsu Tsikata, has said former President John Agyekum Kufuor was determined to jail him at all cost although he had not engaged in any wrongdoing.

Mr Tsikata told Alfred Ocansey on TV3’sHot Issue on Thursday that his trial was purely political and intended to satisfy the aspiration of then-President Kufuor.

The then trial judge, Justice Henrietta Abban, he explained, was only used to prosecute that political motive against him.

Mr Tsikata was sentenced for willfully causing financial loss to the state through a loan that the GNPC guaranteed for Valley Farms, a private cocoa-growing company.

He was found guilty on three counts of willfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state and another count of misapplying public funds. He was convicted on June 18, 2008, and by Justice Henrietta Abban.

The legal luminary was granted a presidential pardon by same President Kufuor but he rejected it on the grounds that his trial was politically motivated and that he did nothing wrong.

He later appealed the case at the Court of Appeal and was accordingly acquitted and discharged.

The Court of Appeal upheld that he was denied a fair trial when the High Court gave a judgment in spite of an appeal.

Nearly five years after his acquittal and discharge, Mr Tsikata narrated on Thursday, June 18 that his was “not a case in which an independent judicial decision is being given”.

“It was a politically driven agenda and [Justice Henrietta Abban] was, unfortunately, a tool for that political agenda.”

Explaining why he rejected the presidential pardon, he said: “As I wrote in the letter to President Kufuor, my quest was for justice, it was not for his mercy.

“I was not going to allow his pardon to get in the way of my seeking justice.

“There has been a miscarriage of justice when justice is sought to be done in the name of the president, it leads to a desecration.”