An Accra High Court has struck out an application by the Attorney-General seeking to revoke the medical travel permission granted to former Chief Executive Officer of the National Buffer Stock Company, Hanan Abdul-Wahab, after the State withdrew the application.
The Attorney-General’s Department informed the court that it was no longer pursuing the application because the travel permission granted to Abdul-Wahab had already expired.
Presiding judge Justice John Eugene Nyante Nyadu Achibonga subsequently struck out the application as withdrawn.
The Attorney-General had sought to set aside the court’s earlier order, granted on July 4, which permitted Abdul-Wahab to travel to London for medical treatment. The permission expired on July 12 before the application was determined.
Abdul-Wahab was arrested at the Kotoka International Airport shortly after the travel order was granted, with prosecutors alleging that he had breached aspects of his bail conditions while attempting to leave the country.
Following Friday’s proceedings, his lead counsel and former Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, criticised the State’s conduct, arguing that his client had been prevented from benefiting from the court’s order.
“I think first and foremost, the conduct of the State must really be emphasised. I’m quite surprised that the State will actually behave in this way, conduct itself in a way just to violate a citizen of Ghana in this manner,” he told journalists.
Dame alleged that Abdul-Wahab was detained for four days after his arrest, preventing him from travelling within the validity period of the court’s order.
“They prevented the court order from being obeyed by arresting him and detaining him for four days and four nights, and then deliberately filed a motion and pursued it until after the lapse of the order,” he said.
He further argued that the Attorney-General’s application had become legally untenable once the travel permission expired.
“I’m surprised that the Deputy Attorney-General will come to court seeking to revoke an order which has lapsed. Clearly, that application was incompetent because the order had already expired,” he added.