The Deputy Attorney-General says his outfit State will accept a ruling by an Accra High Court that the State institute sanctions against a former Chief Accountant at the Sports Ministry through the Civil Service Council. Mr Ebo Barton-Oduro said the Attorney-General’s Department would not appeal the court’s ruling that there was “a procedural error” on the part of the President after he instructed the interdiction of Mr Adim Odoom earlier this year. President Mills ordered Mr Odoom’s interdiction after the former Chief Accountant sent a complaint to the President about financial impropriety on the part of then Sports Minister, Muntaka Mubarak. The High Court, presided over by Justice Novise Aryene, ruled that the President acted unlawfully by suspending Mr Odoom. It further stated that the President has no power to institute an investigation into the conduct of Mr Odoom and should have referred the matter to the Civil Service Council to act. The High Court subsequently directed the National Security to submit a copy of their investigations to the Civil Service Council to enable the body to carry out its own investigations and recommend appropriate sanctions against Mr Odoom. In an interview with Joy News on Monday, Mr Barton-Oduro said the State would pursue the court’s verdict to the letter in handling the matter. “All we have to do is to comply with the court’s order, get the head of civil service notified so that he would get the counsel to meet and form a sub-committee that will deal with the matter,” he stated. He indicated that the head of the civil service had already set up a committee to investigate the matter when Mr Odoom started pursuing the matter in court, forcing the committee to suspend its work so as not to preempt the ruling of the court. The deputy Attorney-General however dismisses suggestions the State had lost in the matter. Mr Barton-Oduro cites a suit in which the court struck out a request by Mr Odoom that he be granted protection under the Whistle Blower Act. Mr Odoom had also questioned being denied access to counsel during the national security investigation, but the court ruled the investigation was only a fact-finding one and that national security did not err in denying him right to counsel. Mr Barton-Oduro argues that on those two scores, the state had won the case. Meanwhile Mr Odoom’s lawyer says the court verdict indicates the President cannot act arbitrarily. He said the President’s instruction that his client be interdicted was high-handed and unlawful. Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana