The High Court has ordered Yaw Odame-Darkwa, a former board member of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) and a prosecution witness, to retrieve, verify, and produce a set of 16 emails at the next adjourned date in the Sky Train trial.
The directive followed cross-examination by Victoria Barth, counsel for former GIIF CEO Solomon Asamoah, who confronted the witness with a series of emails from the Investment Committee (IC) of the board of GIIF exchanged between July and September 2018.
The defence argued that the correspondence is central to testing the witness’s testimony regarding the Sky Train project.
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Odame-Darkwa, who sat on the GIIF Board with the accused persons, has insisted that the Sky Train project never received board approval, stressing that any document suggesting such approval “cannot be genuine.”
He further maintained that the project appeared only once before the Board and was never taken through the level of consideration required for authorisation or funding.
Emails the Witness Must Produce
The court ruled that Odame-Darkwa must retrieve and submit a list of 16 specific emails, including several authored by him, such as:
1. 24 September 2018 – 9:56 a.m., from Yaw Odame-Darkwa to Solomon Asamoah and IC members, circulating a proposed agenda that listed:
Mahama Hotel Project b.Review
c. Sky Train Project
d. Woodfields Tank Farm
e. Safari Hotel Project
f. GIIF Project Information
g. Memorandum (fundraising)
2. Status of Bank Placements
25 September 2018 – 11:18 a.m., from Odame-Darkwa to Asamoah, subject: “InvestCo meeting this Friday 28 September”.
3. 26 September 2018 – 5:26 p.m., another email authored by Odame-Darkwa, again addressing the scheduled InvestCo meeting.
In addition to these, he is required to produce emails from Solomon Asamoah dated 28 July, 30 July, 31 July, 16 September, 22 September, 25 September and 26 September 2018, many of which include attachments and agenda documents relating to GIIF projects such as the Sky Train, Safari Hotel, Woodfields Tank Farm and Emirates Capital.
Odame-Darkwa told the court he could not immediately access his personal email accounts but said he needed time to verify the authenticity of the correspondence.
The presiding judge, Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, subsequently ordered him to produce all 16 emails on December 16, 2025, the next adjourned date.
Charges Against the Accused
The case involves Prof. Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi, former GIIF Board Chair, and Solomon Asamoah, former CEO of the Fund. They are standing trial on charges including: Causing financial loss to the state, and
Dissipation of public funds, arising from a US$2 million expenditure on the Sky Train project, which prosecutors say was made without board approval and without any work done.
Proceedings resume on December 16 when the court expects the witness to present the requested emails.
Souce: CNR
