Director of Communications for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah, has criticised Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, for what he described as a premature public indictment of former National Service Authority (NSA) officials without securing convictions in court.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, June 14, Ahiagbah questioned the legal propriety and ethical judgment behind the Attorney General’s public disclosure of alleged payroll fraud involving GH¢548 million, warning that it risked prejudicing public opinion and undermining due process.
“The question is if we go to court now, where the rubber hits the road, and those so-called allegations that the Attorney General has put out do not carry in court, what would the Attorney General have done?” Ahiagbah asked. “He would have convicted these people in the court of public opinion.”
He argued that the press briefing held by the Attorney General on Friday, June 13 — which named 12 former NSA officials, including prominent figures such as Mustapha Ussif, Osei Assibey Antwi, and Gifty Oware-Mensah — had effectively branded them as guilty without trial.
“The average Ghanaian has now come to the conclusion, just by mere issuance of this notice or the press conference, that ooh, those people — Gifty Oware, Osei-Assibey, or Mustapha Ussif — they are corrupt,” Ahiagbah said. “That’s what he has done.”
He warned that such actions undermine the presumption of innocence and violate Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees fair trial rights to all accused persons.
“Why is he doing that to people when he is a lawyer, he is the Attorney General, and the theatre for his job is the courtroom — not the media pulpit?” Ahiagbah asserted.
The Attorney General has defended his decision to announce the impending prosecutions, stating that investigations have concluded and that charges will soon be filed in court.
-citinewsroom
