Security and safety analyst, Dr. Adam Bonaa has called for the dismissal of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame, as well as the Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah. He described their roles in justice delivery as untenable.
In an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, Dr. Bonaa, pointed to allegations of witness tampering recently made against the Attorney-General, and demanded Mr. Dame's resignation, questioning his competence to lead the quest for justice on behalf of Ghanaians.
"If such a person is prosecuting you, how would you feel? Would you believe that you will be treated fairly and reasonably, looking at what has come out and judging from other incidents that the Attorney General has been involved in? The question is, is he competent enough to represent us?
"Such a person going forward, I would ask humbly, if the president does not fire him, he should step aside so that while a probe is undertaken, if he is able to clear himself, why not?" he said.
Linking his statement to the money laundering investigation initiated against former Minister for Sanitation, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Dr. Bonaa said the level of contradiction exhibited by Godfred Dame and Maame Tiwaa clearly showed that the two are not fit for their positions.
He suggested that the Attorney-General and EOCO boss should step aside for investigations into their work or be removed by their appointing authority, the president.
"As far as I am concerned, he is not competent enough and is not suitable enough to represent us as the number one lawyer defending our civil liberties in Ghana when you look at it from the point of the Cecilia Dapaah-EOCO saga, how he was involved and how he contradicted himself. Such an important public matter, how he and the EOCO boss contradicted themselves. One can say that it speaks volumes of our justice delivery system, and so it would be prudent to say that he and the EOCO boss should step aside. If not, the president should fire them," he stated.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor, citing issues of jurisdiction, handed over the investigation into the Cecilia Dapaah saga to EOCO.
However, EOCO, on the advice of the Attorney-General, also discontinued the investigation into the issue of millions of money found in the residence of the former minister.
The Attorney General explained that the investigations by the OSP did not prove a predicate offense which would form the basis for a money laundering investigation.
The advice further noted that the OSP did not provide a copy of its collaborative investigations with the FBI of the United States, which formed the basis for its decision to transfer the case to EOCO.
But the advice, according to critics like Dr. Bonaa, is indicative of an attempt by the Attorney-General to collude with EOCO and clear Cecilia Dapaah.
In response, however, Godfred Yeboah Dame noted that if any institution cleared Cecilia Dapaah, then it was the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
On the issue of witness tampering and the fabrication of evidence in the ongoing ambulance procurement trial, the Attorney-General, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, described a tape released by the opposition NDC alluding to the allegations as traps set against him by his adversaries.
Mr. Dame emphasized his unwavering commitment to his duties and asserted that he will ultimately prevail and will not be intimidated by these challenges.
Meanwhile, catch up on the latest edition of The Lowdown on GhanaWeb TV as Etsey Atisu sat down with the MP for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Opoku, to discuss issues surrounding the E-Levy, the Saglemi Housing Controversy, and the OSP Impeachment:
Ghana’s leading digital news platform, GhanaWeb, in conjunction with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is embarking on an aggressive campaign which is geared towards ensuring that parliament passes comprehensive legislation to guide organ harvesting, organ donation, and organ transplantation in the country.
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