The Accra High Court, yesterday ordered Mr Alex Mould, the former Chief Executive Officer of National Petroleum Authority and Gavivina Tamakloe to pay GH¢5 million to the state for failing to produce Mrs Sedina Tamakloe Attionu.
Mr Mould and Tamakloe stood as sureties when they were granted GH¢5 million bail by the court presided over by Justice Efia Serwaa Asare Botwe.
Mrs Attionu is the former Chief Executive of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) who is being prosecuted by the state for alleged procurement breaches and causing GH¢90 million financial loss to the state.
Per the order of the court, the state could freeze the properties of the sureties if they were unable to pay the GH¢5 million bond.
Mrs Attionu is currently in the United States of America where she had travelled to seek medical treatment in 2022.
Last year, the court refused to give the green light to prosecutors from the office of the Attorney General to try Mrs Attionu in absentia.
On February 7, 2023, the Court will decide whether or not to try Attionu in absentia.
Mrs Attionu is on trial with Daniel Axim, a former Operations Manager of MASLOC, on 78 counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the State, stealing, and contravention of the public procurement act, among other charges.
The two have denied any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The prosecution has accused Mrs Attionu of engaging in illegalities, leading to the alleged stealing and financial loss.
It has accused Mrs Attionu of embezzling GH¢500,000 that was paid by a company which benefitted from MASLOC support in 2014.
It is also the case of the prosecution that in 2013, following a fire disaster at the Kantamanto Market, then-President John Mahama directed MASLOC to provide assistance of GH¢1.46 million to victims of the disaster, but Mrs Attionu allegedly embezzled part of the money.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
