The Supreme Court has dismissed an application by Gifty Oware-Mensah seeking to halt her ongoing trial at the High Court over allegations that she caused a financial loss of more than GH¢38 million to the state through the alleged National Service ghost names scandal.
The application, filed by her legal team, sought to suspend proceedings while the apex court considered a constitutional challenge regarding a criminal practice direction that requires accused persons to disclose the names and addresses of their witnesses during case management. However, in a ruling delivered on Tuesday, May 19, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court of Ghana held that the request failed to meet the legal threshold for a stay of proceedings, allowing the trial to continue.
The court further directed that Gifty Oware-Mensah must comply with the High Court’s earlier order by submitting the names and addresses of all relevant parties during the next case management conference. Her lawyers had argued that the directive violated her constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The case is part of the broader investigations into alleged corruption and payroll fraud within the National Service Authority, where prosecutors claim thousands of ghost names were used in a scheme that allegedly led to significant financial losses to the state.
