The Accra High Court has stayed the trial of former National Signals Bureau Director-General Kwabena Adu-Boahene and his wife Angela Adjei-Boateng until August 25, 2026, pending a Supreme Court ruling on an application to halt High Court sittings during the legal vacation.
Justice Francis Apangabuno Achibonga took two decisions on Monday, August 17, 2026, that pull in opposite directions. He paused proceedings out of deference to the apex court, which hears the injunction application on August 20, while flatly refusing a separate request from lead defence counsel Samuel Atta Akyea to push the case into the next legal term.
The distinction matters: the trial stops because a superior court is seized of the question, not because the defence persuaded him. The stay is narrow and time-bound.
His Lordship Achibonga, a Court of Appeal judge sitting as an additional High Court judge under a warrant issued by the Chief Justice, suspended the case only until the Supreme Court determines the injunction application seeking to stop High Court hearings during the vacation period.
The second ruling went the other way. The judge rejected a letter from Adu-Boahene’s lawyer, Samuel Atta Akyea, asking that the matter be adjourned to October 2026, when the legal vacation ends.
He reasoned that granting it would undermine his function as a vacation judge, a mandate he holds until the warrant authorising it is revoked, and observed that other lawyers from Zoe, Akyea and Co. could carry the case in the meantime.
Deputy Attorney-General Dr Justice Srem-Sai opposed the long adjournment, telling the court that the request repeated earlier complaints to the Chief Justice that had already been found wanting.
How the Standoff Reached This Point
The dispute has been building for a fortnight. Atta Akyea wrote to Chief Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie on August 5 asking him to withdraw the directive permitting the trial to run through the vacation, saying his team could not attend hearings fixed for August 11, 12 and 13.
He argued that his firm had worked from October 2025 through July 2026 and had made personal and travel commitments for the break, and that comparable criminal and civil matters had been adjourned to October or November.
Invoking Article 125(1) of the 1992 Constitution, he also raised a public perception that Ghana now runs two systems of criminal justice, one for cases before specialised courts and another for ordinary prosecutions.
The Ghana Bar Association wrote in similar terms on August 10. The Chief Justice rejected both, holding that adjournments are matters for the courts rather than administrative decisions automatically bound by the vacation calendar.
The defence team then failed to appear on August 11. Adu-Boahene told the court he had been unable to reach his lawyer and understood that Atta Akyea and his team were marking examination scripts outside Accra.
His Lordship Justice Achibonga noted that counsel had been present when the dates were fixed yet were absent without explanation, and that the letters to the Chief Justice did not operate as a stay of proceedings.
He declined to force the couple to cross-examine the witness that day, calling it unfair to make them proceed after their lawyers abandoned them without justification, but issued an ultimatum: appear with counsel on August 17 or conduct the cross-examination of the fourth prosecution witness personally, failing which the witness would be discharged.
The Charges and the Witness
Adu-Boahene and Adjei-Boateng face charges over the alleged theft of GH¢49.1 million from the state. Both have pleaded not guilty. The proceedings had reached the cross-examination of the fourth prosecution witness, Frank Marshall Cromwell, when the vacation dispute interrupted them.
The prosecution team includes Chief State Attorney Sarah Fafa Kpodo, Principal State Attorney Esi Dentaa Yankah and an Assistant State Attorney from the Economic and Organised Crime Office alongside Srem-Sai.
The New Patriotic Party backed the defence position last week, urging the Chief Justice to rescind the ultimatum on the ground that no person should be compelled to stand trial without counsel of his own choosing.
Former Attorney-General Godfred Dame, acting in a parallel matter involving former National Food Buffer Stock chief executive Hanan Abdul-Wahab, joined the earlier petition to defer vacation sittings.
What Happens on August 20
The Supreme Court’s ruling on the injunction application will determine whether the vacation sittings continue at all, and its reasoning will reach beyond this trial to every High Court matter listed during the break.
If the application fails, Achibonga’s warrant stands and the trial resumes on August 25 with the cross-examination of Cromwell still outstanding. If it succeeds, the timetable Atta Akyea sought through correspondence arrives instead by order of the apex court.
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