Godfred Yeboah Dame says the Office of the Attorney-General was never served notice of an appeal filed by Sedina Tamakloe Attionu in 2024, rejecting claims that the previous government failed to act before her conviction and 10-year prison sentence were overturned.
The immediate past Attorney-General and Minister of Justice said state attorneys told the Court of Appeal in April 2026 that they had not been informed of any appeal until the court instructed the parties to submit written arguments.
Mr Dame made the comments in a statement issued on Friday, 31 July 2026, following public criticism of the Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit and discharge Ms Attionu.
He said no reference to a 2024 appeal had been made during the extradition proceedings, which began in July 2024 and ended in April 2026. He added that the appeal had not been mentioned even in documents filed by Ms Attionu herself before the United States District Court.
“In any event, even if an appeal was filed by Sedina Attionu in 2024, it is completely immaterial, because she took no further step as the accused/appellant until the NDC came back to power. Thus, the Republic had to do nothing in 2024 in terms of the conduct of that appeal.”
Mr Dame said his responsibility as Attorney-General, after overseeing what he described as a successful prosecution, was to secure Ms Attionu’s return to Ghana to serve the sentence imposed by the High Court.
He said he therefore pursued an extradition request, which was upheld by the United States District Court of Nevada on 9 April 2026. The court confirmed the extradition and committed Ms Attionu to custody pending her transfer by the United States Secretary of State.
Appeal proceedings
According to Mr Dame, lawyers representing Ms Attionu obtained permission from the Court of Appeal to file written submissions on 10 February 2026 and filed them two days later. He stressed that he was no longer Attorney-General at that point.
He said prosecuting state attorneys were surprised when they received the submissions on 16 February because they had not previously known that appeal proceedings were under way.
The state’s lawyers subsequently prepared arguments opposing the appeal and obtained permission to file them. Those submissions were filed on 9 April 2026.
Mr Dame said the Principal State Attorney also complained that the appeal record was incomplete and did not contain all exhibits tendered by the prosecution during the trial. The state’s submissions said they “became aware of the instant proceeding … after the Court had directed the Parties to file their written submissions”.
The Court of Appeal, presided over by Justice Mensah Datsa, then examined issues raised by the state concerning the court’s jurisdiction to hear the appeal.
It ordered that three volumes of the record of appeal, which had not been available to the Republic when its written submissions were filed, should be provided to the state. The case was adjourned.
After reviewing the material, the Republic applied for three further documents to be added to the appeal record. That application was granted on 28 May 2026, and the case was adjourned until 17 June.
Mr Dame repeated that he was not Attorney-General during those stages of the proceedings.
On 17 June, a different Court of Appeal panel, presided over by Justice Ankamah, heard the case for the first time and reserved its decision for judgment. The court later overturned Ms Attionu’s conviction and 10-year sentence, leading to her acquittal and discharge.
Political criticism
Mr Dame said the public reaction against the decision was justified because of what he described as compelling evidence presented during the original trial, which received extensive media coverage.
He also accused the current Attorney-General of discontinuing cases against senior members and associates of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He said the decision in Ms Attionu’s case was consistent with what he called a wider pattern and claimed it created a perception that Ghana was operating “two sets of law for two sets of people”.
Mr Dame described the case as the closest Ghana had come to repeating the Woyome Scandal, and said the government should face greater public scrutiny over its approach to criminal prosecutions.
He alleged that, after taking office, the government discontinued criminal cases involving leading NDC figures before introducing a policy of “ORAL”, under which prominent opposition members were pursued in corruption-related cases and appeared in court in difficult circumstances.
He said the Attorney-General should be held to high standards in the conduct of prosecutions.
Mr Dame concluded that a justice system in which political allies avoid accountability while opponents struggle to have their rights respected damaged the reputation of the state.
