The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine has defended his decision to discontinue the case of the Republic vs Kwabena Duffuor and 7 others.
The Office of the Attorney-General, on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, announced that it has entered a nolle prosequi in the case effectively bringing the prosecution of the accused persons to an end.
However, his office faced several criticisms for discontinuing the case, which critics say should have been allowed to proceed to the end.
Speaking at a press briefing during the Government Accountability Series on Monday, July 28, 2025, the A-G explained that a prolonged litigation of the case poses a genuine risk which could ultimately lead to lower net recovery, procedural delays, time value of money and the potential dissipation or concealment of assets.
To him, the discontinuance of the case which came after an arrangement with the accused persons secures a timely resolution or recovery of over GHC800 million in assets and establishes the structure pathway for recovery of an additional GHC1.2 billion with the active cooperation of the accused persons.
Dr. Ayine noted that if the case had been allowed to continue in court, prolong delays such as multiple procedural applications, adjournments and appeals would have hampered the progress of the case.
He argued that “even if judgement were eventually obtained in either the civil or criminal prosecutions, enforcement and execution could take years further deferring any meaningful recovery.”
“It is clear from the foregoing that I took a pragmatic and holistic approach by engaging the receiver and the accused persons to broker a solution that settles both the civil and criminal dimensions of the case.
“This strategy recognizes that while criminal proceedings are punitive, the real economic value to the state lies in a non-conviction based asset recovery approach,” A-G stressed.
“The terms of the settlement are structured to ensure that the Attorney-general, the Bank of Ghana, the Finance Ministry exercise oversight over the recovery of the negotiated amount. Progress under the agreement will be subject to quarterly reviews to ensure that the Accused Persons fulfill their obligations as agreed,” the Attorney-General added.
