A private legal practitioner Bobby Banson wants the use of nolle prosequi by state prosecutors restricted.
He argues that nolle prosequi can be used as a tool for punishment.
Commenting on the recent withdrawals of the cases including officials of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), while speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, February 8, he said “On a larger scale, we are raising this because the persons in this report are politically exposed or deemed to have been politically exposed persons but there are private individuals who have suffered the use of this tool against them.
“That is the larger picture we should look at, why we should restrict the use of withdrawal and nolle prosequi as provided in the constitution.
“The way it is now, you can be prosecuted and a day before the judgement will be given, you may have spent maybe four years going through the trial and a day before the judgement will be delivered, if for whatever reason the AG suspects that you will be freed, he can enter nolle prosequi. It means that when you are leaving the court you can be rearrested and start all over again.”
For his part, 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 Asiama 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.”
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.
