The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has criticised the Attorney-General’s decision to accept a partial recovery of funds in the case involving former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor and seven others over the collapse of uniBank.
The Attorney-General’s Department defended its decision, citing a 60% recovery of funds and assets from the accused as justification for halting further prosecution, arguing it no longer served the public interest.
While Mr Braimah acknowledged that the decision to enter a nolle prosequi may be legally strategic, he argued that settling for only 60% recovery undermines public accountability and emboldens potential offenders.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, he said the approach could create the impression that individuals can misappropriate public funds and still benefit.
“I think if we are going this way, if I misappropriate GHS100 million or something to that effect, and then in the end, I know that the system is such that if I put forward even not 60% but 70% of whatever has been taken, I am going to do away with 30%,” he stated.
“If it involves GHS100 million and I manage to give out GHS70 million, I can keep the GHS30 million for free — then that is an incentive to engage in all sorts of things,” he added.
[embedded content]Mr Braimah cautioned that such settlements, if not properly justified and transparently managed, risk eroding public confidence in the justice system and in the State’s anti-corruption efforts.
“Is that the kind of country we want to build, where it is okay to steal, loot, or misappropriate? If you are not caught, you get away with it, and if you are caught, you refund 60% or 70% and keep the rest? Is that why we are involved in this fight against corruption?” he bemoaned.
He further warned that the lack of deterrent sanctions in such high-profile financial crime cases could set a dangerous precedent.
“If this is how we’re going to go about it, then there is actually an incentive to steal from the State, because there is no sanction, there is no deterrent, there is no accountability, just refund what you have looted, not even all of it, just part… then, really, I think there is an incentive for many people to do a lot of things against this country.”
The Attorney-General recently entered a nolle prosequi in the case The Republic v. Kwabena Duffuor & 7 Others, citing substantial asset recovery as part of a broader non-conviction-based strategy under Operation Recover All Loots (ORAL).
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