The first prosecution witness of the Attorney General (AG) in the case of the Republic versus Solomon Asamoah and Professor Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi (The Sky Train Case), has admitted after being confronted with the audited report of the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) that the project received the unanimous approval of the GIIF Board.
Mr Yaw Odame-Dankwa, a former member of the GIIF board turned prosecution witness, during the sitting of the court on Tuesday, 20 January 2026, was shown a copy of the GIIF 2018 and 2019 audited reports by defence lawyer, Ms Victoria Barth, and he was made to read a specific portion of it to the hearing of the court. After reading the same, Mr Odame-Dankwa admitted that the board indeed approved the project.
Essentially, the defence lawyer had the witness refer to the portion of the report, which identified the US$2 million Skytrain project as an official GIIF investment, using language consistent with the Board’s Investment memorandum. Ms Barth, the defence lawyer, highlighted to the witness that this contradicted his earlier testimony, which claimed that the Board had not discussed or approved the project.
Admission of Emails
At the court’s sitting on 16 January 2026, the email correspondence and accompanying attachments, many of which reference the Accra Sky Train project, were admitted into evidence. These documents identify the Sky Train project as an investment under the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF).
Among the admitted documents is an email thread from September 2020 that explicitly identifies the Sky Train as a GIIF project affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This evidence sharply contradicts the statement by the prosecution’s first witness, Yaw Odame-Darkwa, who previously asserted that the Sky Train project was referenced only once in a board meeting and that the minutes did not accurately reflect the board’s discussions or decisions about the project.
Background
Solomon Asamoah, former Chief Executive Officer of GIIF, and Prof. Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, former Board Chairman, are both facing charges relating to an alleged unauthorised $2 million investment in the Accra Sky Train project. The prosecution claims this resulted in financial loss to the state.
In 2019, the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) invested US$2 million for a 10% stake in Africa Investor Skytrain Consortium Holdings (“Ai Skytrain”), the company developing Accra’s Skytrain light railway project.
The Africa Investor Group (the “Sponsors”) was selected and granted the rights to develop the project by the Government of Ghana (“GoG”) through the Ministry of Railways Development (“MORD”).
At the time, the Chairman of GIIF was Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was Mr Solomon Asamoah.
The Chairman had previously been a member of the GoG. Mr. Asamoah was an international development banker who had been headhunted for the position by a UK recruitment agency.
Following a change of government in Ghana in December 2024, the GoG, through the Office of the Attorney General, now alleges that this action was taken without Board approval, resulting in a willful financial loss to the state, as there is as yet “no railway built”.
It should be noted that the charges do not allege personal gain or diversion of funds, and the state has not charged anyone from MORD or the GoG-selected sponsors; only the GIIF Chairman and CEO have been charged.
The state witnesses who initially faced charges of causing financial loss to the state dropped those charges after stating that they did not approve the project, casting significant doubt on the reliability of their statements.
The prosecution’s case is built almost entirely on these statements to show that a legitimate transaction was “unauthorised”, without which there would be no case to answer.
“The prosecution’s case appears to be politically motivated, intended to fulfil a campaign promise to prosecute members of the previous government. It is unsupported by the facts, relying on demonstrably false witness statements,” a lawyer familiar with the case stated on condition of anonymity.
