A prominent voice in Ghana’s legal community, Martin Kpebu has endorsed the Attorney-General’s decision to discontinue the criminal prosecution of former Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and seven others.
The case, tied to the collapse of UniBank, was officially dropped on Tuesday, July 22, with the Deputy Attorney-General, Dr. Justice Srem-Sai, announcing the nolle prosequi.
According to the Attorney-General’s Office, the move came after the state successfully recovered 60% of the public funds and assets involved, making further prosecution unnecessary and financially burdensome.
While critics, especially from the New Patriotic Party (NPP), have condemned the withdrawal as a sign of political leniency, Kpebu strongly disagreed, emphasizing the importance of non-conviction-based asset recovery in modern justice systems.
“I embrace it fully. It is a bold decision, and it is the right thing to do,” Kpebu told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show. “We’ve said we need to improve our laws in respect of non-conviction-based asset recovery, this is one of them, even though we have not written it in law.”
Kpebu further argued that prosecutions involving powerful individuals are often prolonged, costly, and rarely end in convictions.
“These people are strong, rich, they get the best lawyers and delay the process for years. By the time a conviction comes, we may have lost everything. So, half a loaf is better than none.”
Ghana’s banking sector underwent sweeping reforms between 2017 and 2019, resulting in the collapse of several indigenous banks such as UniBank, UT Bank, and Capital Bank. The Bank of Ghana cited insolvency, weak governance, and risky lending practices as reasons for the sector shakeup.
The costly clean-up led to the creation of Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) and sparked multiple investigations led by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO). Dr. Duffuor and others were subsequently charged as part of efforts to recover lost taxpayer money.
Kpebu insisted that the Attorney-General’s decision does not reflect a miscarriage of justice but rather a bold application of restorative justice principles aimed at prioritizing public interest over prolonged litigation.
