Tuah-Yeboah Challenges Sedina Acquittal

Former Deputy Attorney General Alfred Tuah-Yeboah has criticised the Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn the conviction of former Chief Executive Officer of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, arguing that the appellate judges failed to adequately consider the full weight of evidence presented during the trial. The Court of Appeal, on July 30, acquitted Ms. Tamakloe-Attionu after ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove the offences against her beyond reasonable doubt. The decision set aside an earlier conviction entered by the trial court.

Reacting to the ruling on Citi News, Mr. Tuah-Yeboah maintained that the appellate court’s reasoning did not reflect the entirety of the evidence that had been placed before the trial judge, insisting that the original conviction was supported by substantial material. He argued that anyone seeking to properly understand the case should examine both the trial court’s judgment and the appellate court’s ruling, rather than relying solely on the latter.

“The court shall not set aside the judgment on the grounds that the charges were defective. And let me also place on record, anyone who wants to appreciate the actual evidence in this particular case will be doing himself a great disservice if he chooses to look at the Court of Appeal judgment alone without regard to the judgment given by the trial court,” he said.

Mr. Tuah-Yeboah further accused the Court of Appeal of selectively focusing on portions of the case while overlooking significant evidence that informed the trial court’s verdict. “What the Court of Appeal did in this particular instance is to isolate areas that they thought were convenient to them. If you take the actual judgment, you will realise that what they did was rather a shoddy job,” he stated.

Rejecting the appellate court’s conclusion that there was insufficient evidence, the former Deputy Attorney General insisted that the trial record contained overwhelming material capable of sustaining the prosecution’s case. “What is the evidence on record, because they also indicated that there wasn’t evidence on record? And I can say that there was this mountain of evidence on record that was never availed, and those pieces of evidence on record would lead any reasonable court to a conclusion that Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu had a case to answer,” he added.

The latest comments have added to the debate surrounding the Court of Appeal’s decision, which reversed the trial court’s conviction after finding that the prosecution had not discharged the legal burden required for a criminal conviction. The acquittal marks a significant development in one of the country’s closely watched public sector prosecution cases, with legal observers expected to continue scrutinising both the trial court’s findings and the appellate court’s interpretation of the evidence.

Source: Citi News
Author: Joyce Owusu