Today, June 18, marks exactly 16 years since the wrongful conviction of esteemed legal colossus, Tsatsu Tsikata.

On this day in 2008, an Accra High Court found Tsatsu Tsikata guilty of willfully causing financial loss to the state, a conviction that shocked the nation and sent ripples through Ghana's legal and political landscape.

On that fateful day, Tsikata stood in court without his lawyer, who was absent due to a scheduled interlocutory application.

Tsikata intended to inform the court of his lawyer’s absence and seek an adjournment and so there was no anticipation of a judgment, as two other critical applications were pending at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Notably, the Supreme Court was deliberating on the commercial viability of Valley Farms, the cocoa-producing company at the heart of Tsikata’s charges.

He was accused of unlawfully using the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to guarantee a loan for Valley Farms while serving as its Chief Executive Officer.

Despite the pending applications and the incomplete trial, the High Court, in an unexpected turn of events, convicted and sentenced Tsikata to five years on each of the four counts, to be served concurrently.

This sudden decision came just days before the Supreme Court was set to rule on the commercial viability of Valley Farms, a ruling that would eventually favor Tsikata.