NPP’s Akwasi Osei Adjei acquitted of all charges

Freed Akwasi Osei Adjei with Dr. Addo Kufuor, a former Defense Minister leaving the court premises

A former Foreign Affairs Minister under the former New Patriotic Party government, Akwasi Osei Adjei, has been acquitted and discharged of all eight charges including causing financial loss to the State in a case concerning the importation of rice from India into the country.

The High Court also acquitted Daniel Gyimah, the former managing director of the National Investment Bank, for the same charges.

The two were accused of importing some 300,000 bags of rice from India between April 2008 and February 2009, but the prosecution argued 2,997 of those bags of rice were diverted, leading to a financial loss of some GH¢1.5 billion to the State.

The former minister was earlier acquitted of six of the eight charges but still had to stand trial for two charges including Conspiracy to Contravene the Public Procurement Act and Contravention of the Public Procurement Act. 

Speaking to Citi News, the legal counsel for the defendants, Mr. Godfred Odame said the verdict given on the case vindicated his earlier stance that Hon. Adjei’s trial was politically motivated and had no basis whatsoever.

Commenting on the state prosecution, he said “The manner in which the prosecution handled the matter leaves much to be desired. The whole objective of a trial is to bring a wrongdoer to justice, but when it is motivated by other motives, it becomes malicious.”



By Kwakyewaa Owusu-Nyantakyi/Citifmonline.com/Ghana