Blunt-talking lawyer Edudzi Tameklo has unleashed a withering takedown on embattled Kwabena Aduboahen, formerly in charge of Ghana’s Signals, telling him to get ready for a jail term of up to 25 years as his legal team’s defence strategy falls apart.

“Your lawyers should be coaching you on how to serve less than 25 years,” Tameklo blasted in a fiery Facebook post, ridiculing Aduboahen’s legal counsel for what he described as a laughable misunderstanding of the law.

According to Tameklo, senior lawyer Samuel Atta Akyea’s attempt to hinge Aduboahen’s defence on the Security and Intelligence Act is a colossal blunder.

“If you look at the particulars of the offences, they happened in January and March 2020,” he said. “But the Security and Intelligence Act was only assented to in October 2020. How are you relying on a law that didn’t even exist at the time?”

The high-stakes case against Aduboahen centres on allegations that he set up a private company identical to the state agency he was running, then diverted public funds directly into it while signing a lucrative contract with an Israeli security firm.

“The prosecution’s case is simple,” Tameklo explained. “They say Aduboahen pocketed state cash through a private firm he secretly owned. And now, he’s trying to use post-2020 laws to whitewash a crime that allegedly happened before the ink was even dry on that legislation.”

With the charges carrying a potential 25-year sentence, Tameklo warned that Aduboahen’s lawyers are barking up the wrong legal tree.

“If you don’t understand the charges, how can you defend yourself?” Tameklo sneered. “Alleged payments to MPs in the 2024 elections, almost four years after the fact, are nothing but a desperate afterthought.”

Neither Aduboahen nor his legal team have responded to Tameklo’s blistering remarks, but with the trial looming, the question now is whether they can mount a credible defence — or if Tameklo’s grim prediction will come true.

By Charles McCarthy