
Wontumi trial: Land reclamation was allowed for concessionaires - Mireku Duker
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9th September 2025 8:10:19 AM
5 mins readBy: Abigail Ampofo

Ghana Police has confirmed the arrest of Mr Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC.
He was arrested on Monday, September 8. In a statement shared by the Police on their official X(formerly Twitter) handle, they detailed that,
"The Ghana Police Service has today, 08/09/25, arrested Mr. Kwame Baffoe @ Abronye for Offensive conduct conducive to the breach of the peace", confirming he is in their custody awaiting arraignment before the Court.
According to reports, armed police stormed former NPP Youth Organiser, Moses Abor's house in search of Abronye on Sunday, September 8.
Last week, Abronye made headlines after he formally wrote to eight different countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, the United States, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Germany seeking for protection over his safety in Ghana.
Defending his reason for seeking asylum, he added that “consistent, escalating political persecution, threats to my life, and systemic abuse of state security powers by the current Government of Ghana”.
Early July, Abronye was in the news for being involved in a legal brawl with some law enforcement agencies like the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) and the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine (defendants). He dragged these institutions to court over what he described as unlawful over what he described as breach of 48-hour detention of suspects on the basis that they have not met their bail conditions.
He urged the Supreme Court to declare that the continued detention of suspects by EOCO and NIB beyond 48 hours, solely on the basis that they have not met bail conditions, however excessive, constitutes a violation of Article 14(3) and is unconstitutional.
Abronye has prayed the apex court to give a proper interpretation of Article 14(3) of the Constitution. The law states that "A person who is arrested, restricted or detained for the purpose of bringing him before a court in execution of an order of a court; or upon reasonable suspicion of his having committed or being about to commit a criminal offence under the laws of Ghana, and who is not released, shall be brought before a court within forty-eight hours after the arrest, restriction or detention."
He asserts that the arresting institutions, including EOCO and NIB, lack constitutional authority to detain any person beyond 48 hours without judicial authorisation, regardless of whether bail has been granted but not executed, and wants the court to declare so.
Mr Baffoe wants the court to tackle the issue where EOCO and NIB of grants bail on excessive, or punitive terms which deprive suspects of actual release.
According to him, this "constitutes a constructive denial of bail" and "undermines the purpose and spirit of Article 14, especially clause 3."
The plaintiff is urging the court to issue an order directing EOCО and the NIB to take all necessary and lawful steps to ensure that all persons arrested and granted bail, but unable to fulfil the bail conditions imposed, are either released or brought before a court of competent jurisdiction within 48 hours of their arrest or detention.
The defendants have within fourteen days after the service on them of the statement of the plaintiff's case, inclusive of the day of service, to file or cause to be filed for them a statement of the defendant's case in an action of the suit.
Abronye's legal redress comes after the detention and bail term of some members of the erstwhile government.
Meanwhile, Abronye’s arrest comes days after the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) held in custody the presidential candidate and leader of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Kofi Akpaloo, for alleged financial misappropriation and other related financial misconduct.
On Wednesday, September 3, Kofi Akpaloo was picked up at his residence in Kumasi by EOCO officials for interrogation. Mr Akpaloo vied for presidency in the 2024 general elections. Prior to the election, Akpaloo expressed strong confidence in his chances for a decisive win, predicting victory over major contenders.
However, he obtained 5,219 being 0.09%. Recently, EOCO has given much attention to investigating high-profile political figures and business leaders.
The Economic and Organised Crime Office was established by the Economic and Organised Crime Office Act , 2010 (Act 804) as a specialized agency to monitor and investigate economic and organised crime and on the authority of the Attorney-General prosecute these offenses to recover the proceeds of crime and provide for related matters.
The EOCO has similar mandates to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP). Recently, the OSP released a fifty-page report covering investigations and prosecutions carried out between January 1 and July 31 this year.
The OSP's Seventh Half-yearly Report is pursuant to Section 3(3) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959). The document also outlines key developments in the Office's operations.
According to the OSP, despite resistance from powerful interests, it stayed focused on executing its mandate during this period. As such, the Office successfully progressed significant corruption-related investigations to the stage of court proceedings, while also initiating new inquiries into suspected acts of corruption.
"Then again, the Office, as one of three implementing partners of the new National Ethics and Anti-Corruption Strategy and Implementing Plan, is fashioning and moulding anti-corruption structures that would stand the test of time. The task ahead remains formidable. Much more so is our resolve to perform.
"This reporting period was characterised by intensification of the Office's prosecutorial mandate. We advanced high-profile investigations to court and initiated bold inquiries into suspected corruption, often in the face of deep-seated resistance from entrenched interests.
"Notwithstanding these expected challenges, the Office remains resolute and guided by the rule of law, fairness, firmness, evidence-based action, and the interest of the public. We recognise that the fight against corruption cannot be waged and won only through punitive action and incarceration," parts of the report read.
The legislative framework of the Office of the Special Prosecutor mandates the Authority to crack down on corruption, recover assets, and confiscate illicit property.
"Indeed, the legislative set-up of the Office leans heavily on corruption-prevention and asset recovery and disgorgement of tainted property. Consequently, we proceed on sustainable anti-corruption outcomes by pairing enforcement with robust prevention and asset recovery, especially founded on our unique plea bargaining regime.
In this spirit, the Office scaled up its preventive mandate through active engagement with public institutions, private sector actors, civil society- and secured convictions and asset recovery through impactful plea bargaining. We also reckon that the nation's anti-corruption legal framework requires re-imagination, modernisation and retooling to address the immense scale and complexity of modern corruption in the context of our social, economic and political constructs.
"On this score, the Office has proposed the inclusion of a new chapter in the Constitution dedicated to the fight against corruption through definitive constitutional expression by the institution of proposed concrete measures to effectively and comprehensively suppress and repress corruption in public life as well as in the private sector chief among which include lifestyle audit non-conviction-based asset recovery, enhanced asset declaration and verification regime, and reverse onus presumption of corruption as the foundation of both anti-corruption criminal proceedings and civil asset recovery proceedings," parts of the report added.
The Office is also leading the charge in respect of the passage of a comprehensive Corrupt Practices Act and Conduct of Public Officers Act.
Currently, sixty-seven(67) cases are being handled by the Office, all of which are undergoing comprehensive review.
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