UT, Beige Bank owners prosecution an act of desperation for political gains - Edudzi Tamakloe

A private legal practitioner and member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), as well as an Aide to Ex-President John Mahama, Lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe has attributed the arrest of Kofi Amoabeng, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of defunct UT Bank and the CEO of folded Beige Bank, Mike Nyinaku as an act of desperation by the Akufo-Addo led government to create a certain political narrative that the government is prosecuting founders of the defunct banks.

According to him, President Akufo-Addo is under pressure to satisfy the over 3 million customers who have been affected as a result of the manner in which the Bank of Ghana folded up some of these banks.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show, Lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe asserted that the Akufo-Addo government believes that the action taken against those banks can have a dire political consequence going into an election, hence, the hasty prosecution of Kofi Amoabeng, Mike Nyinaku, and others to satisfy the customers.

He insisted that the prosecution is for political gain as the government is taking undue advantage of the fact that Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution allows it to use the Attorney General's Department to carry out prosecutions; thus, there was no fairness in the manner in which the founders of the defunct banks were taken to the Circuit Court.

"...look at the impact the customers of DKM and God Is Love had over the 2016 election, and so the government is under pressure," he said.

He added that the action taken by the government will create a certain culture of vengeance in the minds of the citizens.

He mentioned that it is strange and curious to find out that the arrest of the founders of the defunct banks happened immediately after President Akufo-Addo had talked about the case during an event he attended.

He wondered why for the past two years, in the case of Kofi Amoabeng, the police caution statement states that the case is still under investigation in spite of the fact that investigations were conducted by the EOCO and a Special Investigation Team under the instruction of President Akufo-Addo at the initial stage of the case.