The Battle of AGs: Ayine v Dame, who wins the Honesty Test?

Last week, Ghanaians were witnesses to a series of events on accountability that should have been matters of legal conundrum in the courts but turned into political mischief of honesty or dishonesty. I am referring to the decision by the new Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine to discontinue the prosecution of politically exposed NDC leading members who were standing trial for various criminal charges under the previous administration, his press conference to explain his decisions and his allegations of impropriety against the former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Dame. Then, Dame’s press conference response with counter allegations of dishonesty against his successor, that turned very important matters of accountability, rule of law and administration of justice into a mere contest of dishonesty. This article is a brief analysis of what has become the beauty contest of honesty between the current AG and the former AG.

According to Godfred Dame, Dr Dominic Ayine was sworn in on 22 January 2025 and on 24 January 2025, he abandoned the case of Ato Forson and two others at the Supreme Court. That was followed by a decision to discontinue the case against Dr Opuni and two others on 28 January 2025 and the case against Ofosu Ampofo and one other on 29 January 2025. Last but not the least on 30 January 2025, two different cases against Dr Johnson Asiama, former Deputy Governor of Bank of Ghana and now Governor were also withdrawn (see, “FULL TEXT: Godfred Dame's 'fiery' full response to Dr. Ayine on discontinuation of cases”, Ghanaweb, 14 February 2025).

Interestingly, none of the above were made public until 28 January 2025 when that of Dr Opuni and Agongo were reported (see, “COCOBOD Case: Opuni, Agongo acquitted, discharged on all charges in ongoing trial”, Ghanaweb 28 January 2025). The following day, the cases against of Dr Ato Forson and Richard Jakpa and that of Ofosu Ampofo are also reported (see, “Ambulance Trial: AG withdraws case against Jakpa and Dr Ato Forson” and “Leaked Tape Case: AG abandons case against Ofosu-Ampofo”, Ghanaweb 29 January 2025). The last was that of Alhaji Collins Dauda on 7 February 2025 (see, “AG drops charges against Collins Dauda, 4 others in Saglemi Housing case”, Ghanaweb 7 February 2025).

Finally, Dr Ayine addressed a press conference and gave his reasons for the nolle prosequi in the above cases on 12 February 2025 (see, LIVESTREAMED: AG addresses subject of withdrawal of key political cases in the courts” and “Defective Charges, Lack of Evidence, Legal Flaws: AG explains why he discontinued some cases”, and see also “FULL TEXT: Why Attorney General discontinued high-profile cases against government appointees”, Ghanaweb 12 February 2025).

Before I discuss the subject matter of honesty or otherwise of the two personalities in this matter, let me make it clear that the decisions to prosecute or to discontinue prosecution have nothing to do with accountability, justice or honesty but rather everything to do with party politics. This is the usual NDC/NPP political hegemony at play because most of the cases and decisions by both Dame and Ayine are politically motivated.

I share Dame’s concerns that Ayine is setting up a dangerous precedent because as an NDC politician taking the decision to end prosecution of these cases against NDC leading members is not only unethical but also has serious conflict of interest. For example, immediately the charges were withdrawn Ofosu Ampofo and Dr Asiamah were both offered appointments by President Mahama (see, “Mixed social media reactions greet Ofosu-Ampofo's appointment”, Ghanaweb, 29 January 2025 and “Ghana president picks Asiamah as next central bank governor”, Reuters, 31 January 2025).

Therefore, one of the reasons for the nolle prosequi was to clear them for political appointments. For ethnical and conflict of interest reasons, Ayine should not have personally been involved in taking the decisions to file nolle prosequi. Instead, as a public servant had written a memo recommending nolle prosequi in the case against Dr Asiamah to Dame, Ayine should have asked a public servant in his ministry to review the files and make recommendations of nolle prosequi to him, though Ayine was not bound by any such recommendations.

It follows from the last sentence above that Dame did no wrong by rejecting a recommendation of nolle prosequi in the case against Dr Asiamah. However, the question for Dame is, if he is so convinced that he had credible evidence to convict all these alleged criminals why did he fail to secure convictions all these years? Does he understand that justice delayed is justice denied? Does he appreciate that his failure to secure convictions in any of these cases is a testament of politically motivated charges as being alleged by some Ghanaians? Is it not strange that Dame, who most of the time won cases at the appellate courts (Appeal and Supreme Courts), could not successfully conclude a single case at the High Courts out of the five cases above? The question is why?

There is no doubt that under the eight years administration of President Nana Akufo-Addo majority of Ghanaians felt that the judiciary was bias in favour of the government. In fact, even the then National Security Minister, Mr Albert Kan Dapaah was of this opinion. At a meeting with members of the judiciary, he was reported to have said that if interpretation of the law is tilted in our favour all the time, people will start accusing the judiciary of bias and the judiciary will not have the confidence to foster freedom and justice in the country (see, “Interpretation of the Law must not always be one-sided, Kan Dapaah to Judiciary”, Ghanweb 11 April 2022.That said a lot and could explain why Dame won cases at the appellate courts but could not complete any of the cases that most people believe were politically motivated.

But is Ayine also right to discontinue all these cases for lack of credible evidence to secure convictions? I do not think so because like Dame, he has also decided to discontinue all these cases for political expediency. For example, no one can convince me that those involved in the Saglemi Housing Scheme have no case to answer. Anyone with such view is being economical with the truth because to construct such high-rise flats without provision for utility services (water and electricity) is insanity. How were residents to expected to live there without water and electricity or were individual residents expected to arrange with Ghana Water and Electricity Companies for their own water and electricity supplies? Ayine got it wrong.

Now back to the honesty test. Considering the full texts of Dr Ayine and Dame press conferences as published by Ghanaweb on 13 and 14 February 2025 respectively, each is accusing each other of dishonesty, half-truths, lack of unethical reasons, professional misconduct, credibility and political expediency in the decision-making processes.

I will discuss some aspects of credibility or dishonesty accusations against each other. Specifically, Ayine accused Dame of disregarding a memo recommending withdrawal of the case against Dr Johnson Asiamah and misconducting himself in the Ato Forson and Jakpa trial by allegedly trying get Jakpa to incriminate Ato Forson in a plea bargain as well as a state prosecution witness in the Opuni case committing perjury in court which was ignored by the court (see “Fact-check: Godfred Dame’s claims that perjury against Dr. Adu-Ampomah was heard false” Ghanaweb, 15 February 2025). Odame also accused Ayine of lacking credibility because there is a pending misconduct charges against him at the General Legal Council (see “How can someone with a pending misconduct case accuse me of being unethical? - Dame stings Dr. Ayine”, Ghanaweb, 15 February 2025).

Godfrey Dame denied knowledge of the existence of the memo recommending to him that the case against Dr Johnson Asiamah should be withdrawn. However, the host of Newsfile, Samson Lardi Ayenini confirmed on his programme on Saturday 15 February 2025 that there was such a memo. Therefore, Dame was being economical with the truth and Ayine was right. Regarding the accusation against Ayine that there is a pending misconduct case against him at the GLC, though accurate, that could not impugn the credibility of Ayine because the complaint has not even been heard (see, “Chief Justice reports lawyer Dominic Ayine to GLC”, Daily Graphic, 3 June 2021).

According to the report, the then Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah reported Ayine to the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council (GLC) for statements he allegedly made during a panel discussion on the 2020 Presidential Election Petition and their impact on Africa's Democracy by questioning the independence of the judiciary due to the manner the Supreme Court adjudicated the 2020 election petition. If that is true, then it’s sad that the then Chief Justice lodge a complaint against Ayine because this is about freedom of speech. Ayine has the right to view his opinion on the independence of the judiciary as every Ghanaian. That is not unethical or misconduct, particularly when the comment was mad at a discussion forum. On the contrary, the then Chief Justice abused his position by lodging the complaint with the GLC.

The question is, why has the GLC not determined the complaint since June 2021? Is that not an indication that the complaint had no merit? Was Dame, the then the Attorney General not a member of the GLC and why did he not make sure that the GLC sat on the case if there was merit? Therefore, in my view Dame is wrong in using this misguided complaint of no merit as matter of unethical conduct by Ayine.

I found it troubling the meeting Dame had with Jakpa as part of his effort in securing plea bargaining from Jakpa. Troubling, because the meeting was held at the residence of a Supreme Court Justice and not at the office or residence of Dame. Second, there was conflict of interest by the fact that Jakpa was related to the Supreme Court Justice and third, should the case go to the Supreme Court as it did, how would that look? It is important that justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done. In fact, Dame should have been sacked for this fundamental error and the Supreme Court Justice should have resigned but in Ghana none of the elites is ever sacked and resigns.

In conclusion, though these cases should be about accountability, rule of law and justice, the two politicians, as always turned them into a political comedy. Sadly, when two elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers and in this case a fight between NDC and NPP means Ghanaians are the victims. Whilst some of the cases might have been politically motivated such as that of Ofosu Ampofo, others might have caused financial loss to the state. Unfortunately, Dame and his predecessor’s failure to conclude these cases during the eight years of their government has given room to Ayine to discontinue all the cases at the stroke of his pen. In doing so, the Ghanaian taxpayer has lost whatever could have been recovered. This is party politics as usual, political opportunism by both men and has nothing to do with honesty or otherwise of the two political actors.

Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK