They are to join their five colleagues to hear arguments from state prosecutors and the defence teams of Dr Opuni and businessman Agongo, to ascertain whether or not Justice Honyenuga had, indeed, been biased, as declared in the 3:2 majority decision of the ordinary bench some weeks ago.
The date for the review is Tuesday, 12 October 2021.
This is not the first time the state has availed itself of the right to file for a review at the Supreme Court.
There was an instance in the Tsatsu Tsikata v. the Republic of Ghana case under President John Agyekum Kufuor, during which now-President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice at the time, filed a review application, just as has been done by his Attorney General Godfred Dame in the Opuni-Agongo case, to overturn a decision by the Supreme Court which did not favour the government at the time.
The ordinary bench, presided over by Justice Jones Mawulorm Dotse, on 28 July 2021, upheld Dr Opuni’s prayer for the removal of Justice Honyenuga from the case, in which he and Mr Agongo are being tried for causing the state to lose some GHS271 million through fraudulent means in the procurement of fertiliser for Ghana Cocoa Board.
The other members of the ordinary panel included Justices Gabriel Pwamang, Agnes Dordzie, Avril Lovelace-Johnson and Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu.
Justices Dotse and Lovelace-Johnson dissented.
The three Supreme Court Justices in the majority had asked that the case be given to another trial judge to handle but the Attorney General argued that redoing the case from the scratch will put a burden on the coffers of the state.
Justice Ashie Kotey and Amegatcher, like Justice Honyenuga, were appointed by President Akufo-Addo in 2018 to the Supreme Court.
Justice Kotey had been active in academia, lecturing at the University of Ghana’s Faculty of Law after leaving the Forestry Commission as Chief Executive under President Kufuor from 2007 to 2009 when the John Evans Atta Mills administration took over the reins of affairs.
Nene Abayaateye Ofoe Amegatcher, on the other hand, has been a private legal practitioner, although he has been teaching, too, as a senior lecturer at the Ghana School of Law since 1994.
Justice Amegatcher, from 2012 to 2015, served as president of the Ghana Bar Association.