Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has alleged that the revocation of uniBank’s licence in 2018 was a calculated political move aimed at financially crippling the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express and monitored by GhanaWeb on Wednesday, July 30, Kpebu referenced a letter dated June 5, 2018, signed by Dr Kwabena Duffuor, in which shareholders of uniBank proposed an injection of GH¢2 billion into the bank, GH¢1 billion by mid-July and another GH¢1 billion before the end of September that year.

He noted that the same offer was made as far back as 2018, describing the consistency of the shareholders’ position as “fascinating.”

According to him, a legal opinion issued by then Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, on January 20, 2018, also questioned the legality of setting up the Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), describing it as potentially criminal and contrary to Ghanaian laws.

“When you put the shareholders’ offer together with Godfred Dame’s legal opinion, the only logical conclusion is that the licence was revoked for political reasons. It was a witch-hunt,” he asserted.

He further alleged that the Akufo-Addo administration, in collaboration with then Minister of Finance Kenneth Ofori-Atta, believed uniBank was financially supporting the NDC, and thus took deliberate steps to revoke its licence in an attempt to cut off that support.

“They were singing from the same hymn sheet,” he said.

“They believed that if you yank the licence from uniBank, you cut off oxygen to the NDC,” he added.

He further argued that uniBank was a key player in Ghana’s economy and should have been considered “too big to fail,” citing how major US banks were supported during the 2008 financial crisis despite their faults.

Martin Kpebu’s remarks come on the back of a recent decision by Attorney General Dr Dominic Ayine to discontinue the criminal case against uniBank founder, Dr Kwabena Duffuor.

AS/VPO