Godfred Yeboah Dame, the former Attorney General, in a strongly worded response, has challenged the current Attorney General, Dominic Ayine, to provide evidence of a GHS10 million Beige Bank settlement.
According to Godfred Dame, there is no record of any GHS10 million Beige Bank settlement.
Dame fired a series of questions at the Attorney General, saying, “I ask, under what circumstances does Dr. Ayine claim that counsel for the accused in the Beige Bank case offered him GHC10Million? I assert that there is no record of this.
I challenge Dr. Ayine to produce the receipt of such a proposal and his official response. Was it a proposal to Ayine in his private capacity?”.
“Alarmingly, instead of exploring means of challenging the correctness of the decision of the Court of Appeal at the Supreme Court, Dr. Ayine seems very satisfied with the development and has already made comments suggestive of a disinclination to appeal,” Dame added.
The Attorney General has come under serious scrutiny after discontinuing the prosecution of the case involving Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and seven others after recovering 60% of the alleged funds.
However, speaking at the Government Accountability Forum on Monday, 28th July, Dr Ayine justified his office’s decision, citing the case of Beige Capital, for which he rejected a GH¢10 million settlement in favour of full prosecution.
Dr Ayine stated, “On the contrary, the records show that the charges (against Dr Duffuor and seven others) were contestable and there was a high likelihood that the defence could have raised sufficient doubt to procure an acquittal, and if that happened, I see from the Beige Capital case, I would not have been able to recover GHC1.00”.
“I can now disclose that Beige Capital offered me or my office, GH¢10 million in settlement. You can ask the lawyers of Beige Capital, and I refused. Today I can’t get 50 pesewas from Beige Capital, so the dynamics are complex”.
Dr Ayine added, “Those who are oversimplifying it and saying this is a goat stealing scenario must understand that it is more complex than just saying that the Attorney General says bring four goats and keep the rest……
I could have been faced with the situation where the thieves would have eaten four of the goats, thus leaving me with only one possibility to recover only two goats, in other words, assets depreciate, and may even disappear before a diligent prosecutor can lay hands on them he explained.”
“He [General Abacha] shipped a lot of the [stolen] assets overseas, mostly to Switzerland and other parts of Europe and the United States. As we speak, from 1998 till now, the recovery process is still ongoing. Even with the sophistication of the Swiss, UN, and Nigerian authorities, recovery is still ongoing, so it is more complicated than that.”
“If we focus on the recovery, it will be very illusory for anyone to think that the AG or the republic can recover 100% in every case”, he boldly stated.
