Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has said that discussions on the former CEO of Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe, should focus on the resources that have been lost, not legal technicalities.
He accused the NDC of using technicalities to set its people who have questions to answer free.
“NDC believes their members are above the law, so they will use legal technicalities to set them free. The State has lost resources, and those responsible must be held accountable. Yet the NDC’s response is to rely on legal technicalities to shield its officials from responsibility,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, August 1.
Ahiagbah further said that the Court of Appeal decision to acquit and discharge Sedina Tamakloe goes against the collective effort to fight c orruption.
He said that this case reinforces the general view that when a person serves in office, he or she can engage in corruption, get out of office, and hope that one day, when his or her party comes to power, he or she will be set free.
“The acquittal of Sedina Tamakloe makes nonsense of our collective effort to fight corruption. The stay of execution filed by the Attorney-General is a face-saving exercise… it is absurd,” he said.
For his part, Legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has said that he cannot state categorically that all the over 70 charges levelled against Sedina Tamakloe, were defective.
He says the accused may have questions to answer on some of the charges; hence he believes that Ghana should wait for the Supreme Court to hear the appeal against the Court of Appeal decision.
“There is some merit in the grounds used by the Appeals Court in acquitting and discharging Sedina Tamakloe. The State clearly didn’t meet the burden of proof in some of the charges.
“But I cannot say all the charges are defective,” he added.
Kpebu further said that the charge on the contract to supply buses to the Ghana Private Roads Transport Union (GPRTU).
He said former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta renegotiated the contract when the NPP took over governance; hence it would not be right to continue to hold Sedina Tamakloe to account.
“Ofori-Atta renegotiated the contract to supply the buses. If you knew the contract was such a terrible deal that you could renegotiate, but you chose not to renegotiate. After renegotiating, how do you saddle Sedina with the consequences? I don’t understand why you will want to hold Sedina accountable,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, August 1.
The Attorney-General has announced plans to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision at the Supreme Court after the appellate court quashed the conviction and 10-year prison sentence imposed on Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu.
The A-G believes that the High Court ruling which convicted Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu has merit and must stand.
In essence, he has filed for Stay of Execution against the Appeal Court’s judgement in favour of former CEO of MASLOC, Sedina Tamakloe Attionu.
The Appeal Court acquitted and discharged Madam Attionu of causing financial loss to the State and other charges against her on July 30.
According to the motion sighted by 3news, “…this Honourable Court will be moved by the Attorney-General (Applicant) herein, praying for an order to stay the execution of the judgement granted in favour of the respondent herein pending appeal upon the grounds stated in the accompanying affidavit and for any further order(s) as this Honourable court may deem fit.”
