The Attorney-General yesterday raised a preliminary objection against Tsatsu Tsikata who made another swift appearance at the Accra Fast Track High Court to argue his motion in a mini trial to determine allegations of bias against Mrs Justice Henrietta Abban. The jailed former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) had filed an affidavit to delete the bias aspect in his application before the Supreme Court where he is seeking to quash the five-year jail term imposed on him by Mrs Justice Abban. But a Senior State Attorney, Mrs Evelyn Keelson, opposed that and told the court that Tsikata's action was wrong in law because it did not follow the due process. When the court wanted to permit Tsikata to move the motion, Mrs Keelson prayed that the A-G would like to file an affidavit in opposition. Following that development, the court, presided over by Mr Justice K.A. Ofori Atta, adjourned the case to today to enable the A-G to file the affidavit in opposition and move it. Last week, the court upheld a motion by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice (A-G), Mr Joe Ghartey, to stay proceedings in the case because the reliefs being sought by Tsikata were the same as another application before the Supreme Court. Mr Justice Ofori Atta said Tsikata's application before it and the one before the Supreme Court shared a common objective and so it was prudent not to determine the matter but wait for the outcome of the matter in the superior court, which it was bound by. The court ruled that although the substantive issue before it was to look into an allegation of bias against the trial judge, while that before the superior court was intended to quash the trial judge's decision, both cases shared a common objective of bias. In view of the court's ruling, Tsikata filed an affidavit to delete the aspect of bias in the application before the Supreme Court and wanted to move his motion to pave the way for the hearing of the mini trial. Mrs Keelson told the court that merely stating in an affidavit to delete did not constitute an amendment at the Supreme Court and that Tsikata must be made to do the proper thing because as far as the A-G was concerned, nothing had been amended in the statement of case at the Supreme Court. Tsikata disagreed with the objection and indicated that at the Supreme Court he was not seeking a relief of bias and that the element of bias was a ground in the application. "There is a difference between a relief and a ground," he argued, and stated that the Supreme Court could not compel anyone to proceed on a ground which he or she was not willing to proceed with. He said his ground of bias in the Supreme Court application was no more being relied upon by him because he had filed an affidavit to delete it, for which reason he could not be compelled to rely on it. Tsikata sought a mini trial as consequent to a recommendation by the Chief Justice that his petition of bias against the trial judge could not be handled administratively but by a court of competent jurisdiction. However, before the case could be heard, the A-G filed a motion to stay proceedings pending a similar issue before the Supreme Court. According to Tsikata, the trial judge, Mrs Justice Abban, had persistently been bias towards him and, therefore, she was not qualified to hear his bail application. Mr Ghartey had argued that the purpose of Tsikata's application at the superior court was to quash the judgement of the trial court given on June 18, 2008 and it was the same application that had been brought before the court. The Supreme Court, on June 25, 2008, suspended judgement on whether or not the International Finance Corporation (IFC) should be ordered to testify in the case in which Tsikata was accused of causing financial loss to the state. That followed a request by Tsikata to the court to "arrest" its judgement and invoke its supervisory jurisdiction by quashing his conviction by the lower court. Tsikata was, on June 18, 2008, found guilty on three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state and another count of misapplying public property and sentenced to five years' imprisonment on each count to run concurrently. The former chief executive of the GNPC was charged in 2002 with three counts of wilfully causing financial loss of GH¢230,000 to the state through a loan he guaranteed for Yalley Farms, a private cocoa-producing company, on behalf of the GNPC, and another count of misapplying GH¢2,000 in public property. Yalley Farms contracted the loan from Caisse Francaise de Developement in 1991 but defaulted in the payment and the GNPC, which acted as the guarantor, was compelled to pay it in 1996. Tsikata pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted a self-recognisance bail. He has since appealed against his conviction.