The High Court in Accra has struck out an application by the Attorney-General seeking to revoke travel permission previously granted to former National Food Buffer Stock Company chief executive Hanan Abdul-Wahab Aludiba.
The court ended the application on Thursday after holding that the permission had already expired and there was no subsisting order capable of being revoked.
The state filed its motion on July 8, seeking to set aside an earlier order allowing Mr Abdul-Wahab Aludiba, the first accused person in a pending criminal case, to travel to London.
That permission required him to return to Ghana by July 12. When the revocation motion came before the court on July 16, the judge observed that the order had regulated its own duration and lapsed once the stated return date passed.
Deputy Attorney-General Dr Justice Srem-Sai initially moved the application and relied on the supporting motion papers and affidavit. Following the court’s observation, he asked to withdraw it because the travel permission was no longer in force.
The court granted the withdrawal and struck out the application. The ruling did not determine the merits of the state’s original objections to the journey because the order had ceased to exist before the hearing.
Mr Abdul-Wahab Aludiba’s lawyer, Godfred Yeboah Dame, argued that the application had frustrated the earlier permission. He said the state filed the motion but the hearing was fixed after the authorised travel period had ended.
Mr Dame further contended that the application could not have succeeded once the order expired. He also accused the Republic of failing to comply with the court’s earlier direction by continuing to hold his client’s passport after his arrest.
Dr Srem-Sai rejected the suggestion that prosecutors controlled the timing. He told the court that hearing dates for motions were assigned by the registry rather than the parties.
On the passport, the Deputy Attorney-General said Mr Abdul-Wahab Aludiba had been asked to report on Monday to retrieve it but did not do so. That account was given in response to the defence allegation and remains part of the parties’ competing submissions.
The original travel permission was granted on June 29. The defence had sought leave for the former NAFCO chief executive to attend a scheduled appointment with his optician in London following a worsening eye condition.
The court approved the journey subject to the July 12 return condition. The later state application challenged that permission, but its disposal on Thursday rested solely on expiry rather than a fresh assessment of the medical basis or travel request.
Mr Abdul-Wahab Aludiba remains an accused person in the underlying criminal proceedings. Striking out the travel motion does not terminate that case, acquit him or determine any charge.
The parties’ passport dispute also was not finally resolved by the order striking out the motion. The prosecution said collection had been arranged, while the defence maintained that continued retention had breached the earlier court direction.
No new permission to travel was granted during Thursday’s hearing. The expired order covered a specific period and destination, and any later request would have to be considered separately if placed before the court.
The latest procedural position is that the Attorney-General’s revocation application has been withdrawn and struck out because the June 29 travel order expired on July 12. The substantive criminal case remains before the court.
