Cash for Justice: State Attorney advises Interpol-wanted suspect to flee

A senior state attorney in Ghana, Emmanuel Lawrence Otoo-Boison, advised a crime suspect, who is said to be on the list of the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL), to run away from facing trial after taking a pregnant goat and cash from the suspect’s ‘agent’ in the latest undercover investigation on Ghana’s justice system.

The suspect, Mohammed Awal, is standing trial in the Upper East region for rape and is reportedly also wanted in Burkina Faso for alleged involvement in some crimes committed in the neighbouring West African country.

The state prosecutor gave the advice with a strong tone during an undercover investigation conducted by the EIB Network’s investigative journalist, Edward Adeti.

Below are a transcript and a video clip showing how the senior state prosecutor proffered the advice:

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: The boy, you have to advise him because the investigator, a policeman told me that they want him in Burkina Faso. So, he should be very careful. If he goes towards that place and they arrest him over there, he will not come back.

AGENT: Okay. But they will not arrest him here. It’s only in Burkina.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: No, here dieer they would not.

AGENT: Okay. Okay.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: What he should rather do is to… (A child interrupts him for attention. He tells the child he is coming. Then, he resumes his talks with the Agent)

AGENT: Huun.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: You see, what he should do is that, errh…

AGENT: Huun.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: …He should, he should see the family people fast.

AGENT: Okay.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: So that he will leave and go to some place nobody will know.

AGENT: Will find him.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: That will be, that will be better.

AGENT: Okay.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: So, you should see the family of the people fast— very, very, very fast.

AGENT: I will do that today.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: See how, if you are able to close the family of the people…

AGENT: Okay.

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY: Then, before I can go through.

CASH FOR JUSTICE