To ensure that high-profile cases travel to their logical conclusions without facing discontinuation, those cases must be given to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to handle, Mussa Dankwah Executive Director of Global InfoAnalytics Mussa Dankwah has said.
He argues that this will avoid accusations of a political witch hunt since the OSP is a former government appointee and secondly, to ensure that prosecutions will continue even if there is a change of government until we have an amended constitution.
His comments follow the critics that the Mahama administration has faced following the recent withdrawals of the cases including officials of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The Mahama administration has officially dropped all criminal charges against the former National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, and Anthony Kwaku Boahen.
Also, the Former Chief Executive of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni, businessman Seidu Agongo, and Agricult Ghana Limited have been acquitted and discharged of all criminal charges in the COCOBOD case by the High Court.
This was after the State Prosecutors, upon the instructions of the Attorney General, filed a notice of withdrawal on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, to drop all charges against them.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, has also withdrawn an appeal initiated by his predecessor, Godfred Yeboah Dame, against a Court of Appeal ruling that acquitted and discharged Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa of charges related to causing financial loss to the state.
In a Notice of Abandonment of Appeal dated January 23, 2025, Dr. Ayine stated that the state had decided not to pursue the matter any further.
“Please take notice that the Republic, having previously served notice of appeal against the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal on July 30, 2024, hereby gives notice that it does not intend to prosecute the appeal further and abandons all proceedings related to this matter from the date of this notice,” he stated.
On Monday The Operation Recover All Loots (ORAL) submitted its report to the President
The ORAL Committee says it has identified $21.19 billion in potential recoveries from looted state assets and undervalued land sales.
During the presentation of the committee’s report to the President at the seat of Government in Accra on Monday, February 10, ORAL Chairman Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said that if the country is able to recover this amount, there will be no need to go to the International Moneyray Fund for support.
“If we are successful in recoveries, we can retrieve as much as 20.49 billion United States dollars,” he stated. These cases include major corruption scandals involving the National Cathedral project, Power Distribution Services (PDS), and the Saltpond decommissioning project, among others,” Mr Ablakwa said.
President John Mahama also indicated after receiving the report that ” Ghaa I no longer a safe haven for corruption.”
He accordingly forwarded the report to the Attorney-General for further action.
But in his Facebook post, Mussa Dankwas said “I am not a lawyer but I understand enough to make suggestions on how to proceed with ORAL having witnessed the legal gymnastics in this country. We can’t assume that NDC will win the 2028 elections and we can’t wait for the Attorney General’s role to be split from that of state prosecution. These ORAL cases will travel beyond the 4 year term and therefore there is a risk of nolle prosequi to be filed in 2029 if NDC does not win the 2028 elections.
“As a result, I think the Attorney General should resource and strengthen the OSP to take on several of these potential political ORAL cases so that we can be assured that those trials will continue beyond the government’s term. While JDM, through his Attorney General has discontinued several court cases due to what is perceived to be witch hunting, we also saw few nolle prosiqui filings during Nana Addo’s terms but many of the cases did not even make their to charges being filed, therefore, both administration can be accused of acting as clearing agents with various levels of degrees.”
He added that “These challenges have arisen because successive governments have not prioritize the separation of Attorney-General’s role from state prosecution. So, for now, the surest bet to ensure continuation of prosecutions is to use the OSP.
“This will avoid accusation of political witch hunt since the OSP is a former government appointee and secondly, to ensure that prosecutions will continue even if there is change of government until we have an amended constitution.”
