The Office of the Attorney General has opposed an application seeking to postpone judgment in the ongoing criminal trial involving Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, over alleged illegal mining activities at Samreboi.

The application was filed by lawyer Samuel Atta Akyea, who recently took over the legal representation of Chairman Wontumi. However, the Attorney General’s Office has asked the court to dismiss the request and allow the case to proceed to judgment.

According to the prosecution, a 13-paragraph affidavit in opposition was filed on Thursday, June 25, by Senior State Attorney Nana Ama Prempeh.

The affidavit argues that the application lacks merit because the accused had legal representation throughout the trial, and the withdrawal of his former lawyer was voluntary rather than caused by circumstances beyond counsel’s control.

“In a 13-paragraph affidavit in opposition deposed to by Nana Ama Prempeh, a Senior State Attorney, and filed this afternoon, the Attorney General strongly argues that the accused person having been represented by Counsel throughout the trial and that Counsel only withdrawing voluntarily and not for cause, the proper source for a new Lawyer to procure the records of and any brief or briefing on the case is the outgoing counsel and not the Court’s Registry,” the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) Secretariat said in a Facebook post.

The prosecution further contends that Mr Atta Akyea’s decision to seek the case records directly from the court registry instead of obtaining them from the previous lawyer was not made in good faith, maintaining that the application should therefore be dismissed so the trial can proceed without further delay.