Abodam Faces Fresh Charge

The case in which Emmanuel Botchway, popularly known as Kwaw Kesse, a renowned hip life artiste, has been accused by his ex-girl friend of stealing �7,000, yesterday developed a new twist when the prosecutor, Inspector Michael Jubiok, informed an Accra Circuit Court of his intention to substitute the charge. The prosecutor, when the case was called, told the court that he wanted to change the charge of stealing leveled against Abodam to a new charge of defrauding by false pretense. This action by the prosecution did not go down well with Naa Adofoley Nortey, counsel for Kwaw Kesse a.k.a Abodam, who objected to the claim on grounds that the case had traveled too far for any such changes. According to her, the prosecutor, who had only the investigator to call as witness, after which he might end his case, could not at the eleventh hour make a change that would inconvenience her client. She noted that once the change was accepted by the court it meant they would have to restart the whole trial because the two charges had different ingredients, and this, she indicated, would undermine the human rights of Abodam. �My Lord, this is a criminal case which has been going on for the past six months, if my client had failed to appear, a bench warrant would have been issued for his arrest. My client cannot afford to start the whole process. He is a public figure and cannot be treated in this manner,� she lamented. However, Inspector Jubiok maintained that a prosecutor had the right to make substitution of charges anytime and any day, adding that they were ready to start the case and expedite the trial. After he finished with his argument, Naa Nortey told the court that the fresh charge sheet was unregistered, for which reason Inspector Jubiok prayed the court for a little time to have the anomaly corrected. Abodam�s lawyer, who was bent on appealing against the prosecution decision because according to her it had no legal backing, demanded from Justice Joe Abanga that her client be discharged and brought back when prosecution was ready. Just as she finished the statement, the investigators in the case went out of the courtroom and stood at the entrance. Realizing Abodam could be re-arrested immediately he stepped out of the courtroom after he had been discharged, Naa Nortey made a u turn and asked the court to rather allow him to remain on his bail term while the prosecutor did the necessary amendment. She prayed that if the prosecution failed to do its homework by the next adjourned date, then her client should be acquitted and discharged. The court, following this submission, adjourned the case to December 21, 2009. Happy Chapel, the London based ex-girlfriend of the artiste, had accused him of stealing �7,000, which she allegedly gave to him to develop a piece of land she had acquired at Prampram. Abodam had denied the offence, and said Chapel, who was his lover in 2008, gave him only �1,000 as a gift.