Political scientist Professor Ransford Gyampo has called on Ghanaians to examine the legal issues surrounding corruption cases rather than allowing emotion to dominate public debate after the Court of Appeal acquitted and discharged former MASLOC Chief Executive Officer Sedina Tamakloe Attionu.
Prof Gyampo said the judgment exposed serious weaknesses in the way corruption cases were being prosecuted and demonstrated the importance of strong evidence, sound legal processes and competent state institutions.
His comments follow the Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn the conviction and 10-year prison sentence previously handed to Ms Tamakloe Attionu by the High Court.
The Attorney General is seeking to pursue the matter further by asking the Supreme Court to examine the Court of Appeal’s judgment. Prof Gyampo described that as an appropriate step, while warning that future cases must be prepared more effectively if Ghana is to secure convictions that withstand judicial scrutiny.
Public expectations around the fight against corruption are high following President John Dramani Mahama’s pledge to tackle the issue through interventions including Operation Recover All Loots, or ORAL.
Prof Gyampo said those expectations were understandable, but stressed that anti-corruption efforts had to operate within the rule of law.
“The battle against corruption had been fought and lost and with the coming to power of President John Mahama who promised to deal with corruption through several interventions including ORAL, the hopes and expectations of people are very high and these are rightly to be expected,” he said.
“But we cannot fight corruption in a liberal state by doing things any how. We must have watertight evidence and we must prosecute well through competent and well trained prosecutors who know the processes, the laws, the rules and appreciate human rights.”
He warned that a failure to handle prosecutions properly could result in accused people escaping conviction because of weaknesses in the cases against them, rather than necessarily because they were innocent.
The academic said prosecutors needed to understand legal procedure and human rights, while also ensuring that the evidence presented in court was strong enough to withstand challenges through the appeals process.
“We can catch all the supposed corrupt public officials, and line them up in courts of competent jurisdictions. But incompetent prosecutions would leave loopholes that may be exploited through the appellate judicial systems to secure acquittals and discharges,” he stated.
Prof Gyampo said Ghana’s broader anti-corruption campaign risked being weakened if prosecutions were not supported by credible evidence and effective legal strategies.
“In this way, we may always either be romancing a stone in our fight against corruption or fetching water with basket,” he added.
He said the Attorney General should be allowed to test the Court of Appeal’s decision at the Supreme Court, but argued that the quality of prosecutions was even more important than the further legal challenge itself.
“Let the AG go to the Supreme Court to test the judgment of the appeals court just for the purposes of ensuring that elite technicalities do not always triumph over bourgeois crimes,” he said.
“But more importantly, let our AG ensure competent, watertight and evidence-based prosecutions that secure proper convictions that can only be overturned through pardon and the exercise of the prerogative of mercy by the President.”
The comments come amid continuing public debate over the acquittal and discharge of Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, whose High Court conviction and 10-year sentence were overturned by the Court of Appeal.
