Three additional criminal cases that were started by the previous government have been closed by Dr. Dominic Ayine, the Attorney General (A-G) and Minister of Justice.
Notable individuals who were on trial and can now breathe a sigh of relief due to the A-G’s action include Dr. Ernest Thompson, a former Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), who was charged with causing financial loss of over $15.3 million in the SSNIT Operational Business Suites (OBS) project along with three other individuals.
Former Water Resources, Works, and Housing Minister Collins Dauda and his successor, Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah, who were on trial for allegedly inflicting financial loss due to the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project, are also beneficiaries of the A-G’s action.
The remaining 53 individuals, including social media personality Elorm Ama Governor-Ababio, also known as Ama Governor, and well-known social activist Oliver Barker-Vormawor, were on trial for unlawful assembly during the Democracy Hub demonstrations against the illegal mining threat last year.
Since Dr. Ayine took office this year, the office has closed six cases in total, including the present action by the A-G.
The A-G notified the Supreme Court on January 24 that it will not be pursuing an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s acquittal of Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the Finance Minister, and Richard Jakpa, a businessman.
On July 30, 2024, the Court of Appeal acquitted and released Dr. Forson, who had previously been on trial at the Accra High Court on charges of causing €2 million in financial loss in an ambulance purchase deal, after the country’s second-highest court upheld his submission of no case.
On January 28, the A-G dropped the accusations against Seidu Agongo, a businessman, and Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni, the former CEO of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), who were charged with defrauding the state of money in a fertilizer purchase agreement.
Once more, on January 30, the A-G filed a notice to drop all charges against Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama, a former second deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, who was on trial in two different cases for allegedly participating in the failure of UT Bank and UniBank.’
Since the A-G filed a notice of withdrawal for three of the four defendants in the SSNIT case, the three individuals are essentially immune from further prosecution.
Therefore, it is anticipated that Dr. Thompson, John Hagan Mensah, and Peter Hayibor, the three accused, would be found not guilty and released in the upcoming hearing of the Accra High Court, which will be chaired by Justice Henry Kwofie, a Supreme Court judge who also serves as a High Court judge.
Caleb Afaglo, the fourth accused, will still go on trial because he is not named in the notice of withdrawal. He is accused of using phony certificates to obtain his job at SSNIT and was charged with several counts of possessing and authoring forged documents. He has entered a not guilty plea to these charges.
Sections 59(1), 59(2)(b)(ii), and 59(5) of the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30) served as the basis for the withdrawal, according to a notice of withdrawal signed by Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and filed on Friday, February 7, 2025.
According to the applicable legislation, the prosecution may drop charges against an accused person; but, if this is done after the prosecution has concluded its case, as it is in this instance, the accused person will be exonerated and released.
To 29 charges, including several counts of conspiracy to knowingly cause financial damage to the state and willfully causing financial loss to the state, the accused entered not guilty pleas.
In 2021, Alhaji Dauda, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Asutifi South, Dr. Agyeman-Mensah, and three other individuals were brought before the court for allegedly causing financial losses to the state due to the Saglemi Affordable Housing Project.
Other defendants included Andrew Clocanas, Executive Chairman of Construtora OAS, the Brazilian firm that built the Affordable Housing Project at Saglemi; Nouvi Tetteh Angelo, a director of RMS, the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) consulting subcontractor; and Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu, Chief Director of the Ministry of Water Resources, Works, and Housing from 2009 to 2017.
The five were charged by the prosecution with purposefully misusing $200 million in state funds to purchase 1,412 affordable housing units in Saglemi rather than the 5,000 units that Parliament had authorized.
The A-G expressed its disinterest in the issue by deciding to bring a nolle prosequi against each of the five accused in a court document submitted on February 7, 2025.
A nolle prosequi ends criminal proceedings, but it does not necessarily result in an accused person being acquitted because the prosecution may reopen the case by bringing fresh charges pertaining to the same facts and situation.
The A-G showed his lack of interest in the matter by filing a nolle prosequi against the protesters from Democracy Hub.
The 53 defendants were charged with several offenses, including conspiracy to commit crime, unlawful assembly, unlawful damage, offensive conduct conducive to the breach of the peace, assaulting a public officer, and defacement of public property.
They were accused of breaking the law during a planned demonstration to express their disapproval of illegal mining and poor governance.
Source: newsthemegh.com