Attorney-General’s Office refuses MFWA access to information on Republic vs. Duffour and 7 others case

The Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice has refused the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) access to information requested under the Right to Information (RTI) law, Act 989.

The MFWA filed the request on May 28, 2026, seeking answers to three questions relating to the case of The Republic vs. Kwabena Duffour and Seven Others.

The request specifically sought information on recoveries made by the state in connection with the case.

On July 22, 2025, the Attorney-General’s office filed a nolle prosequi, effectively ending the case tied to the collapse of UniBank, in which an estimated GHS5.7 billion in depositors’ funds was allegedly misappropriated.

The case was initiated under the Akufo-Addo government but was discontinued by the Attorney-General when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration came to power.

The accused faced charges including stealing, willfully causing financial loss to the state, and money laundering, following the Bank of Ghana’s revocation of UniBank’s license in 2018 over insolvency and serious regulatory breaches.

More than two months after the request was filed, the Office of the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Justice had neither supplied the information nor given reasons for the delay.

This is contrary to the RTI law, which requires a public institution to respond to a request within 14 days, failing which the application is deemed refused.

Section 23(5) of Act 989 states that, “where an information officer fails to determine an application within fourteen days after the application is received by the public institution, the application is deemed to have been refused and the applicant has the right to seek redress under sections 31 to 39.”

On July 29, 2026, the MFWA appealed to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, to exercise his authority as head of the institution and ensure the release of the requested information, invoking Section 31 of Act 989:

“Except as otherwise provided in this Act, a person aggrieved by a decision of the information officer of a public institution may submit an application for internal review of that decision to the head of the public institution.”

As of the time of publication, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice had not responded to the internal appeal sent to his office.

The Office of the Attorney-General’s refusal to release information adds to a long trail of public institutions denying The Fourth Estate or its parent organisation, MFWA, access to information.

In February 2026, the Acting CEO of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) promised to release a copy of the Big Push contracts. As at August, after nearly six months, the GHA had failed to honour its promise. The MFWA has petitioned the RTI Commission to compel the GHA to release the information.  

In July, The Fourth Estate appealed to the Finance Minister after the RTI officer of the ministry refused to release information about the ministry’s budgetary allocation disbursement.

In the same month, The Fourth Estate petitioned the RTI Commission over the Public Procurement Authority’s refusal to release information regarding road contract procurement approval requests that the Authority had received from the Ghana Highway Authority, the Department of Urban Roads, and the Department of Feeder Roads since January 2025.

In May 2025, The Fourth Estate dragged Parliament to the RTI Commission after the legislature failed to release information on expenditure on foreign medical travels of the Speaker. 

Similarly, in December 2025, The Fourth Estate took the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) to the RTI Commission. This was after YEA refused to provide a list of contracts the Agency had signed with Zoomlion Company Limited from 2017 to 2024. Others include the Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Police.