VIDEO: Govt sacks State Attorney implicated in Adeti’s ‘Cash for Justice’ documentary

Government has sacked a Senior State Attorney implicated in an investigative documentary film produced by the EIB Network’s investigative journalist, Edward Adeti.

A statement from the Justice Ministry said, “The Disciplinary Committee which was constituted to investigate the allegations of misconduct completed its work and submitted its report to the Legal Service Board. The Disciplinary Committee carefully considering the evidence adduced, established that Mr. Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison, on his own confession, accepted money from the second witness.

“This was meant to influence him in a bail application against an accused person. He also subtly attempted to extort money from the second witness. The conduct of Mr. Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison constitutes a major misconduct per Regulation 94 (2) of the Legal Service Regulations, 2014 (L. I. 2210) and therefore recommended the dismissal of Mr. Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison per Regulation 100 (1) (a) of L. I. 2210. The Legal Service Board at its meeting in September 2020 adopted the Report of the Disciplinary Committee and the recommendations thereof”.

It added: “A copy of the Disciplinary Committee’s Report was subsequently forwarded to Mr. Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison in September 2020 in accordance with Regulation 120(2) of L. I. 2210. Subsequently, counsel for Mr. Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison, Mr. Edward Kwadwo Oppong, filed an appeal against the recommendations contained in the Report of the Disciplinary Committee to the Legal Service Board. The Legal Service Board on 30th November 2020 after carefully considering the appeal found no merit in same and accordingly dismissed the appeal”.

The Senior State Attorney Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison was captured in the “Cash for Justice” investigative film advising an accused person, Mohammed Awal, who reportedly was on the wanted list of the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL), to go into hiding in exchange for cash and a pregnant goat.

The advice, which is at variance with the interest of the state, shocked Ghanaians as well as the Mediation and Security Council (MSC) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) after the investigative piece was aired in October 2019. An equally stunned former Upper East Regional Minister, Tangoba Abayage, in an interview with Starr FM’s Francis Abban on the Morning Starr, appealed to the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department to contract Adeti to investigate other offices under the ministry in the other regions across the country.

The state’s lawyer, as captured in the investigative piece, also claimed government asked him to study a programme in the United Kingdom but did not provide him with airfare for the London trip. He demanded 1,350 pounds sterling from the accused person’s family to purchase a flight ticket for the said foreign trip.

The Senior State Attorney received those items (the cash and the pregnant goat) and made the demand (cash for airfare to London) whilst he was prosecuting the accused person in a Ghanaian court for a rape offence he allegedly committed in Ghana and whilst the accused person was wanted internationally for some serious crimes he reportedly committed in Burkina Faso.

He was interdicted and investigated further by a committee set up by Ghana’s Legal Service Board (LSB) at government’s request. A Supreme Court judge, Justice Jones Dotse, chaired the committee at a months-long trial in Ghana’s capital, Accra, where the interdicted state’s attorney and his lawyer, Edward Oppong, mounted a defence whilst Adeti and his undercover agent (name withheld) gave evidence. The state attorney’s dismissal comes after the committee submitted its report to government through the LSB.

Meanwhile, a famous security analyst, Adam Bonaa, has been calling on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to promote the immediate-past Bolgatanga Divisional Police Commander, Chief Supt. Samuel Tibil Punobyin, for speaking out against the state’s attorney for working against the interest of the state prior to the Cash for Justice investigation and for rejecting stacks of dollars offered him as a bribe by relatives of some crime suspects in a desperate attempt to avoid prosecution.