An Accra Fast Track High Court will, on March 5 commence hearing of an application for bail pending appeal for former Trade and Industry Minister, Daniel Kwasi Abodakpi, who was jailed 10 years by the court on February 5. The application for bail pending an appeal could not be moved yesterday by the court because an application by the prosecution opposing bail could not reach Abodakpi’s lawyers on time. The two parties agreed on the date for hearing the application after consultation with the presiding judge, Appeal Court Judge S.T. Farkye. This paves way for counsel for Abodakpi to file a reply to the prosecution’s statement opposing the bail application. Abodakpi, was escorted into the court room by four prison officers. He looked calm and held his mobile phone and a bottle of water. There were about 20 people including family members who had come to sympathize with him. There were also National Democratic Congress MPs including Doe Adjaho, Benjamin Kumbuor, Ken Dzirasah, Inusah Fuseini, Alfred Agbesi and Nii Amassah Namoale. Abodakpi, 57, NDC MP for Keta since 1993, was sentenced to 10 years in hard labour on seven counts of conspiracy, causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretences. He was said to have authorised the illegal payment of 400,000 dollars to Dr. Frederick Owusu Boadu, a Ghanaian consultant in Texas, United States, from the Trade and Investment Project (TIP) Fund. The payments which were done in two instalments, of 100,000 and 300,000 dollars were in respect of a feasibility study purportedly conducted by Dr. Boadu under the Science and Technology/Valley Park Project. The eight million dollar TIP fund was set up by the NDC government with assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote the non-traditional export sector and the funds were lodged with the Ecobank. Abodakpi was originally charged with Victor Selormey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, who died in the course of the trial. Source: The Ghanaian Times