Private legal practitioner, Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, has said that there were memos and conversations in the Attorney-General’s department during the tenure of Godfred Dema to discontinue the trial of former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr Johnson Asaiam who has now been nominated as Governor.
However, he said, Mr Dame disregarded the memos.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Sat8day February 8 in relation to the withdrawal of the charges against Dr Asaiama, Edudzi said “Prosecution is a powerful tool, but the most dangerous thing you can ever have is when a president decides to weaponise prosecution to deal with political opponents, Once you get to a point where a president decides to weaponise prosecution for purely partisan political ends, we lose the very essence of it as a public tool, that is what happened in the specific case of Dr Asiama.”
“Even before the A-G filed this process there were already Memos and conversations within the A-G’s department to discontinue the case.,” the Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) added.
The current Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine withdrew all charges against Johnson Asiama, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), concerning his alleged involvement in the collapse of UniBank and UT Bank.
Asiama, along with several others, had been facing a range of charges including fraudulent breach of trust, money laundering, conspiracy to commit crime, and violations of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Act since 2020.
President John Dramani Mahama has received flak for the withdrawal of this and other cases against members of his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC.)
For example, renowned journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni questioned the basis for the discontinuation of cases.
In an article, Manasseh Awuni said that What President Mahama is telling the NPP officials his administration will charge is very simple, “if you are charged, drag the case as long as you can, and if your party comes into office, the court process will be truncated, and you will be set free.”
This does not portend well for accountability, he said.
“This dangerous precedent defeats Mahama’s resolve to fight corruption and defeats such future endeavours. For a president whose administration began the prosecution that resulted in the jailing of its own party people in the GYEEDA scandal, this is a new low and a faulty step.
“The Attorney-General must not truncate prosecution just because he has the power to do so. That power belongs to Ghanaians and must be exercised in our interest.”
