Dear MP for Bolgatanga East and nominated Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine:
Chief Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, I submit this letter to you in the open for personal reasons and will send same to you via WhatsApp.
There’s no doubt that you are a known, solid lawyer, with sound intellectual and academic background. You served as Deputy A-G under the same President previously and most colleagues of yours admit that you’re more than qualified to lead in the restoration of respect and dignity to the Bar.
For the record, most Ghanaians are oblivious of the fact that you’ve been a victim of the Judiciary and the outgone administration since 2021, with a sword of Damocles of sorts hanged over your head as a ‘blackmailing tool’.
Serious threats of withdrawing your practicing license as a lawyer had led to your appearance before the General Legal Council many times over a petition by former Chief Justice, Kwasi Annin-Yeboah.
Your sins, according to a copy of the CJ’s petition signed by the Judicial Secretary, Justice Cynthia Pamela Addo, and quoted widely in the media at the time, were that you questioned the independence of the Judiciary in the 2021 election petition during a TV panel discussion on Presidential Election Petitions and their impact on Africa’s Democracy.
In short, the petition sought to have you punished simply because you raised issues about the independence of the Judiciary due to the manner the Supreme Court adjudicated the last Ghanaian presidential election petition.
In the mind of the then CJ, your analysis failed to apply the rules of procedure the Court he led used for their consistent and continuous dismissal of the petitioner’s applications or reliefs. The advocacy was for you to be punished for that.
The system had previously hauled you for alleged contemptuous comments against the same CJ and Supreme Court during the Election Petition hearing itself too in what was seen as an attempt to shut you down.
Despite the firm assertions in your response that your comments did not attack the reputation of the justices who sat on the election petition, that the comments were in good faith, and within the allowable threshold of fair and temperate speech, the CJ’s petition was allowed to hang, like the sword of Damocles, over your head under three CJ’s of the outgone administration.
Public calls by the NDC to the then CJ to withdraw the complaint were treated with contempt too.
Yet here we are now, with you as the nominated A-G, who will certainly sail through to become the first A-G and Minister of Justice under Ghana’s first President to have returned to the seat of Government after losing an election. A President John Mahama, who returned to power too with such overwhelming endorsement of his presidency and MPs to RESET Ghana, the Judiciary and bring reforms to guard against the tools that were once deployed against you over your right to freely but fairly speak to matters of national importance.
It is in this light that l wish to remind you of a pledge in November 2024 thereabout on TV3 to urge the NDC, when it wins power, to deal with the detention of Gregory Afoko, an NPP member and younger brother of former NPP Chairman and President Kufuor’s protege, Paul Afoko.
As is public knowledge, Gregory Afoko has remained in prison custody years after the court gave him bail only to be held by his own NPP party in Government till the bail was rescinded. Months after his trial for murder was held inconclusive following a hang jury, he’s still in jail.
Even when a convicted drug felon jailed less than a year ago in April 2024 was deemed fit for a presidential pardon considerations in a letter to the Council of State, Gregory was not considered fit for release despite him having not be proven guilty in eight years of detention and trial.
Fact is Gregory was charged with others for the alleged murder of his colleague party member and Upper East Regional Chairman, Adams Mahama. In the end, the state has failed to convince the courts of his guilt and he has been tried thrice in eight years for similar offences.
Brother of the only Ghanaian of northern extraction to have held the NPP chairmanship since 1992, Gregory has been held in circumstance that many agree amounted to a violation of his rights.
The antagonism towards his older brother, Paul Afoko, who was himself removed as Chairman of the NPP together with his allies, then Greater Accra Regional NPP Chairman, Sammy Crabbe and party National General Secretary, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong is alleged to have affected his case and detention. Strikingly, Gregory Afoko’s name was not even among the list of persons submitted to the Council of State by the immediate past Government of his party for presidential pardon or release.
It is my view that the State can’t be used to perpetually persecute a man for a crime it has failed to successfull prosecute through the judiciary. Particularly, when the third criminal trial of the accused individual by jury also ended up being inconclusive.
Holding a person granted bail by a Court against the orders as the AG and State once did under the previous Akufo-Addo administration is a violation of good sense, convention, legal norms and precepts. Just as holding a person one can’t prove committed a crime for eight years can’t be the best form of justice delivery. The NDC must reset that.
After all, a prosecution without basis and evidence to convict, persistence in holding an individual granted bail by a court against the rules, without the ability to achieve successful conviction is nothing but an abuse of the rights of an accuse, and tantamount to persecution.
After three trials, the Government failed to even prove that he was a conspirator in the murder he was accused of. Yet the State held him, making what started out as prosecution clearly a determined persecution.
As is, the State can file a ‘nolle prosequi’ over the prosecution of the man it has failed in successfully prosecuting for eight years and whose rights the the State violated and held him even when granted bail.
I’ve also been legally educated that the State can actually free him even without filing a nolle prosequi. As is, he cannot be even pardoned as he is not a convicted person.
I see no reason why this administration ought to appeal his case or start a trial of him again after being held in custody for eight years.
Methinks a release will even lie as a right in his case as the inconclusive jury verdict of his murder trial ought to be properly interpreted as victory for the accused person.
In his case, the State failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt in the last trial. The trial hanged with a 4-3 jury verdict.
It is in this light that l will plead with you to kindly consult with the President and do the needful for him and all others deserving of being freed or having their trials discontinued. That should include an immediate discontinuation of the other persecutions of of your colleague nominee Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, ex-military officer, Richard Jakpa, former D-G of SSNIT, Ernest Thompson and any other person your office deems fit.
Let the RESET process begin in the justice delivery process as early as possible too.
I wish you well.