The much-anticipated trial of former Deputy Director General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, took an unexpected turn on F
The much-anticipated trial of former Deputy Director General of the National Service Authority (NSA), Gifty Oware-Mensah, took an unexpected turn on Friday when she failed to appear before an Accra High Court, citing ill health — a development that drew stern criticism from the presiding judge, Justice Audrey Kocuvi-Tay.
Oware-Mensah, who is standing trial for her alleged role in the infamous ghost names scandal that cost the state tens of millions of Ghana cedis, was expected to appear in court on October 17, 2025, to respond to multiple criminal charges.
However, her lawyer, Gary Nimako, presented a medical report claiming that his client was unwell and unable to attend the proceedings.
Justice Kocuvi-Tay, visibly displeased, warned that the court would not entertain any excuses meant to delay justice.
“I hope that we don’t have these issues of one person being sick or the other,” she said, stressing that she would have ordered an investigation into the authenticity of the medical report if the investigator had been present.
According to reports, Gary Nimako and his team had been in court for several hours before the case was called.
They reportedly left around 11:30 a.m., citing delays, only to return about an hour later with the medical report — a sequence of events that raised eyebrows about the legitimacy of the excuse.
The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, after reviewing the medical note, informed the court that the accused had been granted only two days of medical rest.
Based on this, she requested an adjournment to any day the following week. Justice Kocuvi-Tay subsequently adjourned the case to Tuesday, October 22, 2025, ordering the accused to be present without fail.
The Charges Against Gifty Oware-Mensah
Earlier in the week, the Attorney-General filed five counts against Oware-Mensah, including stealing, willfully causing financial loss to the state, and money laundering.
The charges stem from investigations revealing that she allegedly created 9,934 ghost names in the National Service database and used her private firm, Blocks of Life Consult, to secure a GH¢31.5 million loan from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
The Attorney-General’s fact sheet alleges that Oware-Mensah claimed her company had supplied goods to National Service personnel on a hire-purchase basis.
However, investigators later discovered that no such goods were ever supplied, and the supposed beneficiaries did not exist.
Funds obtained through the fraudulent loan were reportedly transferred into her company’s accounts and subsequently moved to other entities connected to her, resulting in a total financial loss of GH¢38.4 million to the state.
The Ghost Names Scandal
The case against Gifty Oware-Mensah is part of a larger corruption scandal uncovered by The Fourth Estate earlier this year.
The investigative outlet exposed widespread irregularities within the National Service Authority, including the creation of ghost names and manipulation of posting data through the Centralised Service Management Platform (CSMP) — also known as the Metric App
The exposé revealed how millions of cedis in allowances were paid to nonexistent service personnel, raising questions about the integrity of the NSA’s systems and the complicity of top officials.
Following the revelations, the Office of the Attorney-General initiated an independent probe which confirmed that senior officials of the NSA, including the immediate past Director General, Osei Assibey Antwi in collaboration with private contractors, siphoned over GH¢548 million through fraudulent data entries and ghost name padding.
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