Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Mr. Kofi Bentil, has lauded the Attorney-General’s (AG) Department for the strategy it has adopted to ensure the state recovers funds from the defunct Capital Bank.
The AG, according to him, has worked hard to ensure that the State obtains all the cash from the accused persons in the matter currently before the High Court in Accra as it has provided the necessary witnesses to buttress its case.
“I just want to say for whatever it’s worth to the public that this is one of the cases where I think our state officials are doing a good job.
“Over ten witnesses were called, the details we are going through; you can’t just get up and then throw somebody in jail because you believe he has done this or that,” he noted.
Speaking on JoyNews’ news analysis programme, ‘Newsfile’ on Saturday, Mr. Bentil urged Ghanaians to trust that the AG will get justice for the people.
“Sometimes you have to trust the people who you have elected to do the job. In this matter really, I will say that trust what the AG’s department is doing.
“I doubt if those criticizing the AG would have done better if they were in the same position in this matter”, Mr. Bentil stated.
The Commercial Division of the High Court in Accra last Thursday criticised the terms of settlements reached between state prosecutors and the founder of Capital Bank, William Ato Essien.
Main case
Mr. Ato Essien has been tried for his alleged role in the collapse of the bank, with the prosecution accusing him of the misappropriation of GH¢620 million liquidity support extended by the Bank of Ghana to help keep the bank afloat.
He stood trial together with the former Managing Director of the Bank, Rev. Fitzgerald Odonkor, and a former Managing Director of MC Management Service, Tetteh Nettey, also owned by Mr. Ato Essien.
Together, they were tried on 23 counts of criminality, including conspiracy to steal and stealing.
They however pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintained their innocence all throughout the trial with Mr. Ato Essien maintaining at all material moments that he had Board approval for all actions he took.
However, in the latest twist, Mr. Essien, per the proposed settlement, agreed to pay GH¢90 million in total with an initial payment of GH¢30 million last Thursday and GH¢60 million in an agreed instalment settlement with the state.
However, Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, a Court of Appeal Judge who is sitting on the case as an additional High Court Judge said the settlement agreement by the state may compromise the case against other accused persons in the suit.
His comment sparked many conversations among the populace, who began to question the real intention of the AG for applying Section 35 of the Courts Act.
On the back of this, the Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa explained that the approach adopted by the AG was a step in the right direction.
“Section 35 is a very good provision and those of us who are in policy who look at what goes on in this country and the millions that we lose and we don’t recover over the decade have come to realise that, indeed without section 35 it is lucrative rather to steal. It is without 35 that people steal and I have seen some,” he added.
Mr Bentil explained that, the section provided a provision for the state to recover monies which will end the cycle where people kept running away with state funds.
“There is very good reason, in philosophy and in what is proper and practical for us to have a section 35 and I repeat, because there are people who actually steal state money and want to go to jail for five even ten years; come back and enjoy it
“The AG went in fairly within the law to try and gain something for the state. I have seen people who were willing to go to jail come back and come and enjoy their money. So there is good merit to section 35 and I think that I trust the AG’S department”, Mr. Bentil added.
