Former Deputy Attorney-General Alfred Tuah-Yeboah has criticised the Court of Appeal’s decision to acquit former Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) Chief Executive Officer Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, arguing that the appellate court failed to properly assess the evidence presented during her trial.
On Thursday, July 30, the Court of Appeal overturned Madam Tamakloe-Attionu’s conviction and 10-year prison sentence, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against her beyond reasonable doubt. The decision set aside an earlier High Court judgment that had found her guilty on multiple counts.
Reacting to the ruling, Mr Tuah-Yeboah maintained that the trial court had been presented with sufficient evidence to support the conviction. He argued that the appellate court reached the wrong conclusion by focusing on selected portions of the record rather than evaluating the evidence in its entirety.
Speaking in an interview on Citi FM, the former Deputy Attorney-General urged the public to read both the High Court and Court of Appeal judgments before drawing conclusions about the case.
“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 criticised the appellate court’s reasoning, claiming it selectively relied on aspects of the evidence that supported its conclusion.
“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.
He insisted that the prosecution had presented substantial evidence during the trial, contrary to the appellate court’s finding that the evidential basis for the conviction was insufficient.
“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.
Meanwhile, the Attorney-General has announced that the state will challenge the Court of Appeal’s decision at the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the acquittal.
