A High Court in Accra has reduced the GHc 623 million bail sum handed down to former Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Mr Osei Assibey Antwi, to GHc 120 million.
The court, presided over by Justice Kizita Naa Quarshie, has also reduced the number of sureties from six to two, who must be justified with landed property worth GH₵80 million.
The reduction followed a second application for variation filed by lawyers for the accused, arguing that the initial bail sum was excessive and practically impossible for the sureties to meet.
Mr. Osei Assibey has been dragged before the court on allegations of authorising payments of allowances to over 60,000 non-existent national service personnel between August 2021 and February 2025, causing the state financial loss of GH₵650 million.
He has been charged with a total of 14 counts of stealing, causing financial loss to the state, and money laundering.
On October 30, 2025, a High Court presided over by Justice Quarshie granted Mr. Assibey bail of GH₵800 million with six sureties who are to present security with landed property equivalent to the bail sum.
The sureties are to deposit copies of their ID cards with the registry of the court, while the accused is to deposit his passports with the registrar.
Struggling to meet the bail condition more than one month after it was granted, he filed a motion for variation of bail as his sureties were struggling to meet the conditions.
On November 12, 2025, Justice Marie-Louise Simmons, a relieving judge, partially granted the application and reduced the bail sum from GHc 800 million to GHc 623 million but maintained all the other terms.
Unable to meet the conditions, his lawyers filed a second motion for variation of bail, stating that the bail sum, which is equivalent to about $60 million, was akin to a denial of bail.
Moving the motion, his lawyer, Osei Owusu, indicated that the purpose of the bail granted to the accused person was to ensure that he is in the jurisdiction to attend trial, and that has already been met by the confiscation of his travel passport and the placement of his name on the no-flight list of the Ghana Immigration Service.
“By these terms alone, it is improbable and impossible for the accused person to leave the jurisdiction of Ghana pending and during this trial,” he told the court.
He also told the court that to the extent that the accused person has a GSM phone known to the investigators, his precise location in Ghana at any point in time, whether the phone is on or off, is known.
“This addresses the concern of prosecution that even though he may not attempt to leave the jurisdiction, he can still hide in Ghana to avoid trial, a position which is highly improbable,” he argued.
He added that since the accused person was arraigned and the court ordered the prosecution to file disclosures, “to date, not even a blank A4 sheet has been given to us.”
The application was opposed by Dufie Prempeh, a Principal State Attorney, who argued that the accused did not demonstrate any significant change in the circumstances that would warrant the reduction of the bail sum.
She said the bail sum was set with full regard for the seriousness of the offence, noting that the accused has been charged with 14 counts of stealing, causing financial loss to the republic and money laundering, offences which carry up to 25 years in prison.
“Given these factors, we believe that the bail conditions are necessary to ensure his appearance in court and also to maintain public confidence in the justice system,” she added.
Justice Quarshie, after listening to the lawyers, reviewed the bail sum from GH₵623 million with six sureties to GH₵120 million with two sureties.
The court, however, maintained all the other conditions and adjourned the trial to December 19, 2025, for case management.
