Godfred Yeboah Dame
Former Attorney General (AG), Godfred Yeboah Dame, has criticised the Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit former Chief Executive Officer of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, setting aside the 10 years’ jail term handed her for stealing and causing GH¢93 million financial loss to the state.
Mr. Dame took particular aim at the manner in which the whole appeal process was initiated and eventually decided upon, indicating that the Office of the Attorney General under his tenure never received a notice of appeal filed by lawyers of Tamakloe-Attionu following her conviction and sentencing.
He is of the opinion that the development falls in line with a grand scheme by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to free all its former appointees and allies who were facing criminal proceedings.
His criticism comes at a time of public outcry about the appellate court’s decision which cleared the former John Mahama appointee of all 78 charges levelled against her.
“The public opprobrium and rejection of the acquittal and discharge of Sedina Tamakloe Attionu are merited considering the cogent evidence led at the trial, which enjoyed massive media coverage, and was thus easy for all to appreciate,” Mr. Dame indicated in a statement.
Acquittal
Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu was acquitted and discharged by the Court of Appeal on July 30, 2026, after holding that the charges that initiated the trial were defective.
The court, in its judgment, said the prosecution failed to lay sufficient evidence in proving the charges levelled against her.
The decision criticised the trial judge’s handling of the case, stating that she shifted the burden of proof onto the accused rather than the prosecution as the law demands.
Prior to the acquittal, Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu had been hiding in the United States since 2021 after failing to return to Ghana to face trial, when she was granted permission by the court to travel for medical checkup. The court had to declare her a fugitive.
She was extradited to Ghana after Mr. Dame, during his tenure as Attorney General, initiated extradition proceedings against her, and same granted by a US Court in April this year.
Notice of Appeal
Mr. Dame, in a press statement, indicated that no notice of an appeal filed by Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu in 2024 came to the attention of the Office of Attorney General in his tenure.
He said this position is captured in both oral and written submissions made by attorneys from the Attorney General’s Office in April 2026 – and that, “they became aware of the proceedings only after the Court of Appeal directed the parties to file their written submissions.”
Mr. Dame pointed out that even if an appeal was filed by Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu in 2024, “it is completely immaterial” because no further step was taken by her as the appellant until the NDC came back to power. “The Republic had to do nothing in 2024 in terms of the conduct of that appeal,” he said.
Mr. Dame further pointed out that what he, as the Attorney General who had superintended a successful prosecution, had to do at the time was to ensure that the convicted Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu was brought to Ghana to serve the sentence lawfully passed by the High Court of Ghana.
“The competence of my extradition request was upheld in the Order of the United States District Court of Nevada on April 9, 2026, which confirmed the extradition and committed Ms. Attionu to custody pending her extradition by the Secretary of State,” he pointed out.
He observed that throughout the Sedina extradition proceedings, no mention was made of an appeal filed by Tamakloe-Attionu in 2024 against her judgment – not even in the processes filed by Sedina herself in the US District Court.
He also pointed out that the prosecuting state attorneys at the AG’s Office were surprised when they were served with the written submissions of Tamakloe-Attionu on February 16, 2026, because they had no prior notice of the pendency of any proceedings.
The former Attorney General says the latest development smacks of an orchestration to clear Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu of her “felonious acts” and highlights the growing perception of Ghana’s current justice system.
Two Sets of Law
Mr. Dame also criticised what he described as the existence of two sets of law for two sets of people – “a justice system in which political friends face no accountability and time-honoured rules are compromised for their comfort whilst political opponents are treated like second-class citizens and struggle for their basic rights and freedoms to be respected in criminal trials reflects poorly on the State.”
He said equality before the law exists only in theory and is not lived practically, noting that the Sedina Scandal is the closest Ghana has been to a re-enactment of the Woyome Scandal.
Accountability
Mr. Dame added that Ghanaians ought to demand more from a government which set out after inauguration, to discontinue all criminal cases pending against its leading members only to launch, immediately thereafter, a policy of Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) by which it aggressively parades leading members of the opposition in court on alleged corruption related offences in trials conducted under extremely difficult conditions.
“The Attorney General in these circumstances must be held to very high standards in the prosecution of cases,” he added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak