The Office of the Attorney General has indicated its intention to strongly oppose an application seeking to postpone judgment in the criminal trial involving the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, over alleged illegal mining activities at Samreboi.

The application for deferment of judgment was filed by Samuel Atta Akyea, who recently took over legal representation of the accused person.

In response, the Attorney General’s Office filed a 13-paragraph affidavit in opposition on Thursday, June 25, through Senior State Attorney Nana Ama Prempeh, urging the court to dismiss the request and proceed with delivering judgment.

According to the prosecution, the application has no legal merit, arguing that the accused person has been represented by counsel throughout the proceedings and that the withdrawal of his previous lawyer was voluntary and not due to any unavoidable circumstance.

In the affidavit, the Attorney General maintained that where a change of counsel occurs under such conditions, the appropriate course for new legal representation is to obtain case records and briefing materials from outgoing counsel rather than requesting them from the court registry.

“In a 13-paragraph affidavit in opposition deposed to by Nana Ama Prempeh, a Senior State Attorney, and filed this afternoon, the Attorney General strongly argues that the accused person having been represented by Counsel throughout the trial and that Counsel only withdrawing voluntarily and not for cause, the proper source for a new Lawyer to procure the records of and any brief or briefing on the case is the outgoing counsel and not the Court’s Registry,” a statement attributed to the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) group on Facebook noted.

The prosecution further contends that the decision by the new defence counsel to seek case documents directly from the court registry, rather than from previous counsel, was not made in good faith.

The court is expected to rule on the application as the case continues.