BY Daniel Bampoe
The Accra High Court has dismissed an application by former Deputy Director General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, seeking to halt her criminal trial and refer constitutional questions to the Supreme Court, ruling that the request lacked merit and raised no genuine constitutional issue.
Delivering the ruling on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, the presiding judge, Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, held that the defence failed to establish that the matter required constitutional interpretation by the apex court.
The judge concluded that the application did not meet the threshold for a referral and accordingly dismissed it.
The application, filed by lawyers for Oware-Mensah, led by Garry Nimako Marfo, challenged provisions of the Practice Direction on Disclosure and Case Management in Criminal Proceedings, 2018, which require an accused person to disclose the names and addresses of witnesses at the case management stage.
The defence argued that this requirement violated Article 19 of the 1992 Constitution, which guarantees the presumption of innocence.
However, the prosecution, led by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, opposed the application, maintaining that the Practice Direction is consistent with the Constitution and is intended to promote fair, transparent, and expeditious trials, rather than undermine the rights of accused persons.
In her ruling, Justice Kocuvie-Tay stated that the accused had not demonstrated that “a genuine question has arisen for the matter to be referred to the Supreme Court for interpretation,” effectively clearing the way for the trial to proceed within the High Court’s jurisdiction.
Following the dismissal, Nimako Marfo announced that the defence would formally apply for the full written reasons for the court’s decision and advise their client on the next legal steps.
He disclosed that the defence had already filed a Notice of Appeal against an earlier order compelling Oware-Mensah to file her witness list, as well as a motion for stay of proceedings.
In response, Justice Kocuvie-Tay stayed proceedings and adjourned the case to February 18, 2026, to consider the application for a stay, temporarily pausing the substantive trial.
Ms Oware-Mensah has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including stealing, willfully causing financial loss to the state, using public office for profit, and money laundering, in connection with the alleged GH¢38 million National Service ghost names scandal.
She is currently on GH¢10 million bail.
Background
The prosecution of Gifty Oware-Mensah forms part of a wider criminal process arising from investigations into the National Service Authority (NSA) ghost names scandal, which exposed large-scale manipulation of the NSA database.
Investigations revealed that thousands of fictitious, ineligible, and non-existent individuals were fraudulently registered as national service personnel, enabling the payment of millions of cedis in allowances to people who never served.
The scandal triggered national outrage and led to criminal investigations by state authorities, resulting in charges against several former NSA officials, including former Director General Osei Assibey Antwi and Ms Oware-Mensah.
