The Accra High Court has dismissed an application by former Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, seeking to stay proceedings in her ongoing criminal trial until the determination of her appeal at the Court of Appeal.
Oware-Mensah’s lawyers had filed the application for a stay pending the hearing of their appeal against the High Court’s order directing her to disclose the names and addresses of her witnesses during the case management conference.
She faces multiple charges, including using public office for profit, causing financial loss to the state, and money laundering, all of which she has denied. She is currently on bail.
Following the dismissal of the application on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, defence counsel Nana Benyin Ackon, holding the brief for lead counsel Gary Nimako Marfo, informed the court of yet another notice of stay of proceedings pending the outcome of a separate appeal at the Court of Appeal.
That appeal challenges the High Court’s earlier refusal to refer certain constitutional issues to the Supreme Court for interpretation.
Oware-Mensah’s legal team had argued that the Practice Direction on Disclosure at the case management stage, which requires the accused to file a list of witnesses, contravenes provisions of the 1992 Constitution.
They therefore prayed the court to refer the matter to the Supreme Court and subsequently applied for proceedings to be halted in the interim.
Presiding judge Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay ordered the defence to serve the prosecution with their supplementary affidavits and adjourned the case to April 15, 2026.
The prosecution had earlier notified the court that although it had been served with the notice of application for stay, it had not received the supplementary affidavits filed by the defence in response to its own affidavit in opposition.
The trial, which centres on allegations of financial impropriety involving over GH¢38 million at the NSA, is expected to continue on the adjourned date.