Sky Train Project was mentioned at several board meetings — Witness

A former Board Secretary of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), Kofi Boakye, has told the High Court that the SkyTrain project was mentioned at several board meetings. 

While the first prosecution, also a board member, told the court that the project was mentioned only once at the board meeting, the second prosecution said the project came up at several meeting except that the board did not approve it.

This came up during cross-examination in the trial in which Solomon Asamoah and Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, a former Board Chairman of GIIF, have been accused of conspiring to cause financial loss of $2 million for building the Sky Train system, which was never built, the witness said.

Counsel for Mr Asamoah, Victoria Barh, suggested to the witness that but for his independent explanation or clarification to the company secretary that took over from him, that particular secretary and a Chief Accountant had understood that there was a sentence in an existing document that indicated the board’s approval of the SkyTrain project.

In his response, the witness told the court that his evidence to the court that the secretary that took over from him told him that at all times he (witness) made the secretary to understand that Sky Train was never approved.

“She (new secretary) drew my attention to the evidence there and my response was that statement did not constitute an approval.

The CEO had referred to that memo as a record of the minute of the approval of the SkyTrain project. 

“This happened when the management team of GIIF appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament,” he said. 

Minutes

Mrs Barth’s cross-examination centered on the minutes of the GIIF board meeting in October 2018 that recorded the Sky Train project as approved, which stated  in part, “following the approval by the board that the sum of US$2 million be invested in the Accra Sky Train project”.

Despite being the author of the minutes, the witness maintained that this did not constitute a record of the board’s approval.

He further stated that after he had left the GIIF Board in 2020 that:

Counsel accused the witness of embellishing his earlier testimony about what the new secretary told him, adding that Exhibit 4 showed the board approved the Sky Train project.

“Far from testifying to matters that never happened, the question that was posed by counsel was that Ms Abban “understood the words in exhibit 4 to constitute an approval.”

That was the question, so it is important to state the fact as they are,” the witness answered.

“It is not correct that the new secretary told you that the CEO had referred to the minutes of 24th October, 2018 as the record for the board approval. No such conversation ever occurred,” the lawyer further suggested.

Kofi Boakye, in his response, said that during his conversation with the new secretary in the presence of other board members, the CEO insisted that the minutes of October 24, 2018, constituted the record showing that the board had approved the Sky Train project.

Mrs Barth then pointed out to the witness that the new secretary was not present at the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) when the “CEO insisted that the minutes of 24th October, 2018 captured the board approval of the Sky Train project”, and so it could not have been stated in her presence.

The case was adjourned to February 17, 2026, for continuation.