Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, a Chief State Attorney at the Office of the Attorney-General, has been expelled as a lawyer by the General Legal Council (GLC) for collecting GH¢400,000 from businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome in 2011.
This means that Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh can never practice as a lawyer again in Ghana after the Disciplinary Committee of the GLC, the regulatory body of the legal profession, found him guilty of professional misconduct under Rule 2(2) of the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct and Etiquette) Rules, 1969 (L.I. 613).
In a letter dated January 31, 2024, the GLC stated that Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh personally oversaw the direct transfer of GH¢400,000 from Mr. Woyome to his wife’s bank account while representing the state in a lawsuit filed by Woyome in 2011.
According to the GLC, Mr. Nerquaye-Tetteh was unable to provide a plausible rationale for the GH¢400,000 that Mr. Woyome had sent into his wife’s bank account.
According to the GLC, the conduct of Mr Nerquaye-Tetteh had adversely affected “the “dignity and high standing of the legal profession.”
“That, he, as a lawyer and a Chief State Attorney, having acted as counsel for the State in the case, Alfred Agbesi Woyome vrs. Attorney General & Anor had an amount of Four Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢400,000.00) transferred directly from Mr Alfred Woyome into the bank account of his wife, Mrs. Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh without any reasonable explanation; a conduct or act that adversely affects the dignity and high standing of the legal profession.
“SAMUEL NERQUAYE-TETTEH shall not hold himself out as a lawyer or attend chambers or render or purport to render any professional legal services to the public. The practicing licence of Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh is hereby withdrawn forthwith,” the notice added.
Judicial Secretary, Justice Cynthia Pamela Koranteng, signed the January 31 notice.
By Emmanuel Kwarteng
