The release warrant for former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, has been signed after the Attorney-General withdrew a motion seeking to block her release.
The Attorney-General on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, discontinued an application that sought to halt Tamakloe Attionu’s release. Following the withdrawal, the presiding judge signed the release warrant.
The development comes weeks after a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, in July 2026, quashed her conviction and 10-year prison sentence on 78 corruption-related charges.
The panel, chaired by Justice Emmanuel Ankamah, with Justices Samuel Obeng-Diawuo and Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe concurring, ruled that the trial judge had repeatedly shifted the burden of proof onto the appellant, contrary to the constitutional presumption of innocence. The court further held that the prosecution had failed to prove several of the charges beyond reasonable doubt.
Hours after the appellate ruling, the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice filed a notice of appeal at the Supreme Court, indicating its dissatisfaction with the Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit and discharge Tamakloe Attionu.
Her release marks the latest chapter in a long-running legal battle arising from allegations of corruption during her tenure as MASLOC CEO.
Tamakloe Attionu was convicted in April 2024 by the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe, after a trial that began in January 2019. She faced 78 charges, 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, relying largely on investigations by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and a forensic audit report, alleged that she misappropriated and diverted public funds through several MASLOC programmes. The allegations included the diversion of a GH¢500,000 facility linked to Obaatanpa Microfinance, misuse of funds for sensitisation programmes, diversion of relief funds intended for victims of the Kantamanto Market fire, and inflated procurement of vehicles and mobile phones.
She was tried and sentenced in absentia after travelling to the United States in 2021 with the High Court’s permission to seek medical treatment but failing to return to Ghana. Following her conviction, Ghanaian authorities secured her extradition. She returned to Ghana on June 9, 2026, and began serving her 10-year sentence at the Nsawam Medium Security Female Prison on June 24, 2026.
