The Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, has formally drop the trials of former Minister of Water Resources, Works, and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda, and former Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ernest Thompson.
Collins Dauda, alongside three others, was facing charges of willfully causing financial loss to the state in the $200 million Saglemi Housing project.
Similarly, Thompson and his co-accused were on trial for an alleged $14.8 million loss in SSNIT’s Operational Business Suite (OBS) project.
However, in a dramatic legal twist, the Attorney General entered a Nolle Prosequi, signaling the state’s decision to halt all proceedings against them.
The Accra High Court, just days prior, had granted the Attorney General a three-week period to determine whether the prosecution of Collins Dauda and his co-accused would continue.
However, within three days, the state formally withdrew the charges.
The legal provision under Section 54 of Act 30 allows for such withdrawals before a final verdict, but it does not prevent a future government from reopening the cases.
Legal analysts argue that this move stresses the shifting political dynamics in the handling of corruption cases involving past government officials.
In the case of Ernest Thompson, the Attorney General withdrew charges against three out of the four accused, notably excluding Caleb Afaglo, a former SSNIT General Manager of Management Information Systems, who remains on trial for allegedly forging his academic credentials.
The sudden decision to drop these high-profile cases raises critical questions about the state’s commitment to accountability, with critics suggesting political motivations behind the discontinuation.
