The Court of Appeal has acquitted and discharged former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, overturning her conviction and 10-year prison sentence.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Thursday, July 30, 2026, a three-member panel comprising Justices Emmanuel Ankamah, Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe and Samuel Obeng-Diawuo held that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
The appellate court consequently set aside the convictions entered against Tamakloe-Attionu by the Accra High Court and ordered that she be acquitted and discharged on all charges.
The ruling brings to an end a long-running legal battle stemming from allegations involving Tamakloe-Attionu’s tenure as MASLOC CEO.
She was convicted in April 2024 by the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe, following a trial that began in January 2019. She was initially charged with 78 counts, including conspiracy to steal, stealing, wilfully causing financial loss to the state, causing loss to public property, improper payment of public funds, unauthorised commitment of public funds, money laundering and breaches of the Public Procurement Act.
The prosecution relied substantially on investigations conducted by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), as well as a forensic audit report. It alleged that Tamakloe-Attionu misappropriated and diverted public funds through a number of MASLOC programmes.
Among the allegations were the diversion of a GH¢500,000 facility linked to Obaatanpa Microfinance, the misuse of funds earmarked for sensitisation programmes, the diversion of relief funds intended for victims of the Kantamanto Market fire, and the inflated procurement of vehicles and mobile phones.
Tamakloe-Attionu was tried and sentenced in absentia. She had travelled to the United States in 2021, with permission from the High Court, to seek medical treatment while the trial was ongoing. She, however, did not return to Ghana after her departure.
Following her conviction, Ghanaian authorities secured her extradition to Ghana. She returned to the country on June 9, 2026, and began serving her 10-year sentence at the Nsawam Medium Security Female Prison on June 24, 2026.
Her legal team subsequently appealed both the conviction and the process through which she was tried and sentenced in absentia. The lawyers argued that the charges were fundamentally defective and that the evidence presented by the prosecution failed to meet the standard of proof required in a criminal case.
The Attorney-General’s Office opposed the appeal and urged the Court of Appeal to uphold the decision of the High Court.
In allowing the appeal, however, the Court of Appeal criticised aspects of the trial court’s approach. The panel said the trial judge had lost sight of the constitutional principle that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The appellate court also identified shortcomings in the manner in which the prosecution conducted its case and concluded that the evidence presented fell short of the legal threshold required to sustain the convictions.
The court stated that its full reasons for the decision, contained in a 94-page judgment, would be made available.
The acquittal and discharge therefore overturns the previous conviction and sentence, restoring Tamakloe-Attionu’s legal position as an acquitted person in the case.
