Former Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Ghana@50 Planning Committee Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani says although he believes in the judicial system of the state he has reasons to believe that his trial was more “political than legal”. Mr. Mpiani was speaking to Citi News after an Accra High Court on Tuesday August 10, discharged him and Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, former Chairman of the defunct Ghana@50 Secretariat of all charges of willfully causing financial loss to the state. They were facing four counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state but pleaded not guilty and were admitted to GH¢35 million self recognizance bail each. Mr. Justice Samuel Marful-Sau, a Court of Appeal Judge, sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court judge, in his ruling, upheld the motion of the defense that under Article 280 of the 1992 Constitution, the accused persons were entitled to an appeal at the Court of Appeal because the Ghana@50 Commission of Inquiry had the powers of the High Court. Mr. Justice Marful-Sau said even though the Attorney General had the right to prosecute, it must ensure the due process of the law. He said Article 282 (61)(2a)and (62) of the 1992 Constitution made it unlawful for the prosecution to charge the accused persons, who appeared before the Commission of Enquiry as witnesses with any criminal offence. Mr. Justice Marful-Sau advised that anytime the state wanted to prosecute people considered to have misappropriated State resources, it could resort to other investigative agencies and not the Commission of Enquiry. Mr. Mpiani, who told Citi News he was excited at the hustle of not going to the court as he did on weekly basis, noted that the trial was more political than legal. “Honestly I believe it was more political than something legal. I had a look at the issues and read the report and I was wondering where the loss was; and reading through the report, there was nothing pointing to me personally. “But we live in a society where people believe that others must be sacrificed because immediately there was changeover people were calling for prosecutions and the party foot soldiers were pushing the A-G to prosecute us so they even failed to look into the issues, that’s my believe,” he noted. He said he was not surprised at the ruling because he was convinced that he had not committed any error for him to be dragged to the court. “I always believe that the Kind God will look at it and come out to let Ghanaians know that I haven’t done anything wrong. I also believed in the judiciary that at least there are some judges there who will look at it and listen to my lawyers and come out to say what I believed will be in my benefit. And when I came out I was very much relieved and I was thankful to God. The whole thing was let’s try and get these people by fair or foul means instead of finding out what exactly happened,” he said. Mr. Mpiani hinted Citi News that although the case appears to have been halted, he and Dr. Wereko Brobbey will soon go back to the court to challenge the adverse findings leveled against them to prove their innocence. Source: Citifmonline