The Accra High Court has declined an application by lawyers for former Chief Executive Officer of the National Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), Hanan Abdul-Wahab, seeking to have the entire charge sheet against him dismissed.

Instead, the court directed the prosecution to make corrections to only two portions of the charge sheet — Counts 9 and 14 — allowing the case to continue.

Mr Abdul-Wahab and his wife, Faiza Seidu Wuni, are currently standing trial on 20 charges, including allegations of causing financial loss to the state.

The application was presented by their lead lawyer, former Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame, who argued that the charge sheet was fundamentally flawed and should be cancelled in its entirety.

However, the court disagreed with the request and ruled that only the two identified counts required amendments.

Speaking after the ruling, Mr Dame expressed dissatisfaction with the decision and confirmed that his legal team would challenge it through an appeal.

“Even though they’ve been ordered to amend some of the charges, we’ll still file an appeal,” he said, adding that he believed the ruling was not legally sound.

The former Attorney-General argued that several of the charges lacked adequate information needed for the accused persons to properly understand and defend themselves.

He claimed that some counts contained references to multiple payments without indicating the dates, locations or specific circumstances surrounding those transactions.

According to him, a charge involving a large sum of money cannot be considered clear if it fails to identify the individual payments that make up the amount being claimed by the prosecution.

“You cannot have a sum of 50 million put together in one count and state in the same count that it consists of several payments. Which several payments? When did they take place? Are they related?” he questioned.

Mr Dame maintained that the prosecution must provide sufficient details about the transactions forming the basis of the allegations.

He explained that because the National Buffer Stock Company supplies food items to various institutions across different parts of the country, each transaction must be clearly outlined to ensure a fair trial.

He cited examples of separate supplies that could involve schools in different regions, arguing that such transactions cannot simply be grouped together without specific details.

The lawyer insisted that the appeal was not intended to delay proceedings but was aimed at safeguarding the constitutional rights of his client before the trial progresses.

He said an accused person must have a clear understanding of the allegations against them in order to properly prepare a defence.

Using a boxing analogy, Mr Dame argued that unclear charges place the accused at an unfair disadvantage, making it difficult for them to effectively respond to the case against them.

Hanan Abdul-Wahab and his wife, Faiza Seidu Wuni, are facing prosecution over allegations that they diverted public funds belonging to the National Buffer Stock Company and the School Feeding Programme for their personal benefit.