Last week a former Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame and the Deputy President of Imani Ghana Bright Simmons had cause to query the integrity of Dr. Dominic Ayine.
Dr. Ayine a learned man who until now commanded respect as a shining legal personality like others in the NDC appears to have forgotten it is time for serious business and not propaganda.
Godfred Dame and Bright Simmons have both punched holes in the recent actions by the Attorney General.
Such misrepresentations which Lawyer Dame alluded to and his nolle prosequi craze lower his credibility.
The penchant for media glitz is also not doing any good to the gentleman and the earlier he comes off it the better it would be for his already battered integrity.
It is surprising that he did not know that the lies and half-truths contained in his presentations would be detected by discerning Ghanaians and there are many of them. Was it that he doubted the intelligence of his compatriots who he erroneously think would take anything originating from him hook, line and sinker?
As the Chief legal adviser to the state Dr. Ayine should be responsible enough as to speak the truth and allow Ghanaians to make the final judgment.
A lawyer of his standing should not be reminded about moral breach of tarnishing the image of others in the court of public opinion and avoiding the court of competent jurisdiction.
Of course it is part of a grand mission to damage the integrity of the opposition NPP: throwing legal standards to the wind is preferable by the party whose interest he would rather is enhanced regardless of the moral breaches. In so doing however he should apply some veneer so his intentions would not be too glaring as they are now.
The conflict of interest element standing prominently in the matter of Kwabena Dufour and the state in which he was counsel to the former has excited public interest and compounded his case in the court of public opinion.
That a consummate lawyer like him would take the path he did, nolle prosequi, smacks of a machination which does not inure to the interest of the state.
Dr. Ayine is setting a record of being the Attorney General with the highest number of discontinued cases involving huge sums of money belonging to the state.
We wish he would answer the query about the amount of money his client refunded to the state. He is being accused of inflating the figure with others even claiming his client paid no money at all to the state.
Are we as a people setting a precedent by which highly placed persons can fleece state funds through the positions they hold and when nabbed pay a certain percentage thereof and pocket the rest.
In the case under review it is even being alleged that no dime was paid to the state.
An explanation from the Attorney General would calm nerves. For now the observation is that the bar of quality governance is being lowered at a fast rate.
The Dr. Duffuor and Dr. Ayine’s story could not have been captured more succinctly than the Daily Gist’s “Duffuor Goes Home With GH5.7bn UniBank Cash”.
