The New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the Mahama government has been running a “shameful project” since January 2025 to use the Attorney-General’s office and the courts to free NDC-affiliated persons standing trial for offences against the public purse.
At a press conference on Friday, July 31, the NPP said the acquittal of former MASLOC CEO Sedina Tamakloe Attionu was the latest move in that project – and the most brazen.
“What we witnessed yesterday was not an isolated judicial outcome; it was the unmasking of a system,” the party stated.
The NPP said the pattern began in January 2025 with the use of nolle prosequi and case discontinuances to drop charges against “virtually every person affiliated to the governing party”.
But with Sedina Tamakloe, the party argued, that route was closed, as she had already been convicted in April 2024 and sentenced to 10 years for stealing and causing GH¢90 million in financial loss.
“What could not be achieved through the front door of a nolle prosequi given that the accused stood already convicted has now been achieved through the back door,” the NPP said.
The NPP outlined how the Mahama government had embarked on a “shameful project” to free NDC members on trial and also how they system works
It said the first phase was the “discontinuance phase” from January 2025 to date, using the Attorney General’s office.
The Attorney General’s Office, the NPP said, has systematically discontinued prosecutions against NDC appointees and allies facing trial for corruption, financial loss, and procurement breaches, adding that this was done to clear the slate for “friends of the government”.
“Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution makes the Attorney-General the guardian of the public interest in all criminal prosecutions. The NPP accused the Attorney-General of converting his sacred duty of his office being a ‘guardian of public interest’ into a ‘partisan clearing house since January 2025’.”
The NPP went on to details of cases the Attorney General has discontinued for no reason, and they are as follows:
SNNIT SCANDAL:
The High Court in Accra has acquitted and discharged the former Director-General of SSNIT, Ernest Thompson, and two others who were accused of causing financial loss of $15.3m to the state.
UNIBANK SCANDAL
UniBank founder, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor has been charged by the state with 68 counts of fraudulent breach of trust, money laundering, dishonestly receiving and falsification of accounts. The others are Hoda Holdings Limited, Kwabena Duffour II, Ekow Nyarko Dadzie-Dennis, Elsie Dansoa Kyereh, Jeffrey Amon, Benjamin Ofori and Kwadwo Opoku Okoh.
Amount involved: GHC 5.7billion.
SAGLEMI SCANDAL
Collins Dauda, Kweku Agyeman-Mensah (former Minister for Water Resources, Works, and Housing), Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu (former Chief Director of the Ministry for Water Resources, Works, and Housing), Nouvi Tetteh Angelo (CEO of Ridge Management Solutions Ghana Limited), and Andrew Clocanas (deceased, former Executive Chairman of Construtora OAS Ghana Limited).
Amount involved: $200m
COCOBOD SCANDAL:
The Attorney-General, Dominic Ayine has withdrawn all charges against Dr. Stephen Kwabena Opuni, the former CEO of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), and businessman Seidu Agongo.
Amount involved: GHC271.3million
“It is a wholesale amnesty for the politically connected, dressed up in prosecutorial discretion,” the NPP said.
“And to the Judiciary, we say this with heavy hearts but steady voices. Every judge of the superior courts swears to do justice, and Article 17 of the Constitution guarantees every person equality before the law. Yet the pattern now staring the nation in the face is a two-track system of justice: one track, swift, forgiving and generous, for friends of the government; another, harsh, hurried and merciless, for its opponents.
“A judiciary that convicts the opposition on thin evidence in record time, while the government’s allies walk free against overwhelming evidence, is not administering justice; it is administering politics in judicial costume,” it added.