Patricia Appiagyei
The Minority in Parliament has called for the immediate resignation of the Attorney General (AG) and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, alleging that he acted unlawfully in directing the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to release GH¢350 million from the Contingency Fund despite pending garnishee proceedings against the fund.
Addressing the media in Parliament yesterday, the Deputy Minority Leader, Patricia Appiagyei, described the Attorney General’s conduct as a blatant violation of the Constitution and the rule of law, insisting that he had lost the moral and legal authority to remain in office.
According to her, the Minority was in possession of a letter dated July 1, 2026, signed by the Attorney General and addressed to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, directing the central bank to release funds approved by Parliament for the National Emergency Flood Response Programme.
She said the letter acknowledged that the Contingency Fund was already the subject of garnishee proceedings before a court but nevertheless advised the BoG to release the money “without delay” on the basis of what the AG described as his “considered opinion.”
Ms. Appiagyei argued that no minister had the authority to override a subsisting court process, stressing that only a court could vary or discharge a garnishee order.
“The Attorney General, aware of a subsisting court process, directed the central bank of the Republic to proceed notwithstanding it on no authority but his own considered opinion. In the Republic of Ghana, court processes are not overridden by the considered opinion of any Minister,” she said.
She contended that the AG ought to have applied to the court to vary or discharge the garnishee order instead of attempting to bypass the judicial process.
The Deputy Minority Leader further alleged that although Parliament approved the withdrawal of GH¢350 million from the Contingency Fund for flood relief, the money may have been released from a different public account because the approved fund remained under court attachment.
“If the Contingency Fund remained under attachment and could not lawfully be accessed, then the emergency disbursement could only have proceeded through another public account,” she said.
According to her, such an action would amount to a constitutional breach because Parliament had only authorised withdrawals from the Contingency Fund and no other public account.
She questioned the Ministry of Finance’s public announcement that the funds had been released from the Contingency Fund, saying if another account was used, then the official statement did not accurately reflect what transpired.
Ms. Appiagyei challenged the government to make public all relevant records, including the garnishee order, Bank of Ghana account statements and transfer advice from the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, to establish the actual source of the funds.
“The government should tell Ghanaians which account was used, who authorised the withdrawal and under what law,” she stated.
The Minority maintained that the Attorney General’s actions violated several provisions of the 1992 Constitution, including Articles 1, 88, 125, 177 and 178, as well as the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
The Deputy Minority Leader also accused the government of concealing material information from Parliament by failing to disclose that the Contingency Fund was already under garnishee proceedings when approval was sought from Parliament’s Finance Committee on June 29.
She further questioned whether the Minister for Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, knew about the court action before seeking parliamentary approval, arguing that either the minister withheld critical information from Parliament or was unaware that the constitutional fund had become the subject of court proceedings.
Neither scenario, she said, inspired confidence in the government’s management of public finances.
Beyond the Attorney General, the Minority also demanded that the Minister for Finance, Dr. Ato Forson, appear before Parliament to explain the circumstances surrounding the release of the funds.
It further called on the Governor of the Bank of Ghana to publicly state whether the central bank declined to comply with the Attorney General’s directive and disclose the account from which the GH¢350 million was ultimately released.
The Minority also requested the Auditor General to undertake a special audit of the flood response disbursement from source to destination and submit a report to Parliament.
Ms. Appiagyei warned that if the government failed to provide satisfactory answers, the Minority would pursue all available parliamentary and legal remedies, including a full parliamentary inquiry and an action at the Supreme Court to enforce the Constitution.
She stressed that the Minority fully supported emergency assistance for flood victims and had never opposed the release of relief funds.
“Our issue is with a government that conceals court processes from Parliament, directs its central bank into illegality, moves the people’s money through unapproved channels, and then tells the nation a story its own records contradict,” she said.
The Deputy Minority Leader called on President John Dramani Mahama to act, and said the Attorney General should either resign voluntarily or be relieved of his duties without delay.
“An Attorney General who presides over the attachment of a constitutional fund has failed in diligence. An Attorney General who conceals that attachment from Parliament has failed in candour. An Attorney General who directs the central bank to proceed notwithstanding those proceedings has failed in fidelity to the Constitution he swore to uphold,” she declared.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House