‘Show us where money throwing is a criminal offense’ – Lawyer challenges OSP

A private legal practitioner, Kwame Adofo, has challenged the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyabeng, to prove the part of the constitution that criminalizes throwing out money, for which the aspirant in Ejura Sekyeredumase was invited by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for investigation.

He was speaking on Accra-based Neat FM and monitored by GhanaWeb.

According to him, the act of the aspirant, Juliana Kinang Wassan of the Ejura Sekyeredumase constituency, who was seen in a viral video spraying notes of money on the delegates present at the primaries, though not publicly acceptable, is not a criminal act to warrant a summons from the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

“it is not right to throw out money for any reason. Even the look itself is not nice. But my question is, how is it criminal. Nobody is saying his/her money is missing. Nobody is alleging that the woman came to steal from him. You could ask her, and she will say, "t's for my husband and I am throwing them out because I am happy. That is the law, you must be able to demonstrate it, for example you uncover her, camping delegates to give them money. That is where you are getting the evidence. If the person is happy and she’s throwing out money, then you come out to say this is a criminal activity. The question is how you are going to establish it. Because she was seen throwing out money that an offense. He should prove the law that states that throwing money away of is an offense,” he challenged.

The lawyer, Kwame Adofo, believes that the Office of the Special Prosecutor could have a case if the aspirant's act involved her damaging the currency.

“At the best is the case of damaging the Ghanaian currency with that you can have an offense under the currency act by the Bank of Ghana, just like tearing the money into pieces is an office but sharing money,” he added.

Background:

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary aspirant, captured in a viral video throwing out money on the day of the presidential and parliamentary primaries, was invited by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for alleged corruption.

This was contained in a letter reported by myjoyonline.com.

The said letter cited the aspirant, Juliana Kinang Wassan of the Ejura Sekyeredumase constituency, as a person of interest in an ongoing investigation concerning her act during the primaries last Saturday, May 13, 2023.

The MP aspirant, Kinang Wassan was one of the people who stood to be voted for to represent the Ejura Sekyeredumase constituency on the ticket of the NDC in the 2024 general election.

When she was quizzed about her intent before the polls, she told a reporter that she realized she had the money in her car and decided to share it.

The video of the incident has since gone viral on social media.


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