Private Legal Practitioner, Dr. Josiah Cobbah has said Ghanaians should trust the Attorney-General’s judgement in his decision to enter a nolle prosequi in the case of The Republic vs Kwabena Duffour and 7 others.
At a press briefing on Monday, July 28, 2025, the Attorney-General, Dr. Dominic Ayine defended his decision to discontinue the case against Dr. Kwabena Duffour and 7 others.
He explained that Section 35 of the Ghanaian Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459) allows for accused persons to be given non-custodial sentence once the court has accepted a restitution by the accused.
He stated that he has recovered 60% of funds from the accused persons with the remaining balance yet to be recovered.
“The Judge could reject the restitution or offer of the accused person but once the Judge accepts the offer of the accused person, I have no role in it.
“Then the accused person must be given a non-custodial sentence. In other words, the accused person will walk home. So, those who are saying you are cutting a deal and letting criminals walk must understand that the even the legislative framework contemplates that in some cases, the accused can pay restitution and get non-custodial sentence,” he stated.
Following his discontinuance of the case, the A-G has faced criticisms from some legal practitioners and governance experts who questioned his capability in fighting financial crimes.
Commenting on the decision by the A-G, Dr. Cobbah said the A-G has the authority to drop charges against an accused and believes he is being professional in his work.
“My own feeling is that he has the authority to do that. He is in the position at any point in the prosecution to through in the towel or to say we are not going to continue the case.
“I think he was at pained to as it were tell us that prosecuting financial crimes like Mr. Duffour’s is a very complex process and sometimes you have to make a judgement call in terms of going the fall and cutting a deal and asses the risk.
“I think that given the situation, we should trust his judgement. After all he is got a professional staff and there are things that we may not know about,” he noted in an interview on TV3 New Day’s The Big Issue on July 29, 2025.
However, Dr. Cobbah added that “even though, the A-G is clothed with the authority to make such deals, it is always important in a democracy like ours to explain to us the generality of the public how he got to where he has taken us.”
