The Government has been cleared to proceed with the inauguration of the new Board of the Bank of Ghana following a high court ruling Thursday. The court, presided by Justice Aduamah Osei, agreed to a compromise arrangement between the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, and an Accra legal practitioner, Sam Okudzeto. Sam Okudzeto, who is also a leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party, had sued the government for alleged wrongful dismissal and dissolution of the previous Board, claiming that the action of President J.E.A. Mills to dissolve the board and reconstitute it amounted to a flagrant violation of the law. He therefore went to court to seek among others, a declaration that the action of the president was illegal, null and void. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, however has objected to Mr. Okudzeto’s locus to prosecute the case because, arguing that his appointment to the Board by former President John Agyekum Kufuor was without the consultation of the Council of State and therefore void. But per the compromise arrangement and which was adopted by the trial court, the parties acknowledged that “In view of the unexpected delay in the final determination of the above matter and in view of the fact that a Board of the Bank of Ghana is urgently required to carry out certain statutory functions which affect the country at large, the parties herein, in the supreme interest of the nation have met and agreed” on an interim arrangement that “an interim board of the Bank of Ghana is appointed and sworn in by the President pending the final determination of all issues in controversy in this matter.” The case previously went to the Court of Appeal, which granted a stay of execution in favour of the A-G when the trial court insisted on proceeding with the matter without the A-G’s objection to the capacity of Mr. Okudzeto. The Court of Appeal ruled that the issue of the capacity of Sam Okudzeto raised by the Attorney-General was so fundamental that further proceedings in the High Court must be stayed pending the determination of the Appeal filed by the Attorney General. Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana