Ghana’s Court of Appeal has quashed the corruption conviction of former Microfinance and Small Loans Centre chief executive Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, and the Sedina Tamakloe acquittal has already triggered a fierce political row in Accra.
A three member panel, comprising Justices Emmanuel Ankamah, Emmanuel Senyo Amedahe and Samuel Obeng-Diawuo, delivered the unanimous ruling on Thursday morning. In a 94 page judgment, the court held that the prosecution failed to prove the 78 count case against Mrs Tamakloe Attionu beyond reasonable doubt, according to Graphic Online. The panel also found that the trial judge lost sight of the constitutional presumption of innocence during the original hearing.
Mrs Tamakloe Attionu led MASLOC between November 2013 and January 2017. She was tried in absentia at the High Court’s Financial Division, presided over by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, and convicted in April 2024 on charges spanning stealing, conspiracy to steal, causing financial loss to the state, money laundering and breaches of the Public Procurement Act. She received a 10 year sentence with hard labour.
The case had already drawn international attention before the Sedina Tamakloe acquittal became public. Mrs Tamakloe Attionu travelled to the United States in 2021 with High Court permission for medical treatment and never returned to face trial.
US Marshals arrested her in Nevada in January 2026, and a Nevada district court certified her extradition after ruling that the treaty between Washington and Accra remained enforceable, as Graphic Online reported. She landed in Accra on 9 June 2026 in what officials described as the first extradition from the United States to Ghana since 2009, and was admitted to Nsawam Medium Security Female Prison on 24 June to begin her sentence.
Barely five weeks later, the Sedina Tamakloe acquittal has undone that outcome entirely. Her lawyers had argued throughout the appeal that the original charge sheet was defective and that prosecutors relied too heavily on a forensic audit report without sufficient corroborating evidence, a position the Court of Appeal ultimately accepted.
The Attorney General’s office responded within hours. Dr Dominic Ayine instructed the Director of Public Prosecutions to file an immediate notice of appeal at the Supreme Court alongside an application for a stay of execution, pending the outcome of that appeal, the Attorney General’s statement said. The office maintained that it remains confident the Court of Appeal’s decision will ultimately be overturned.
Political reaction to the Sedina Tamakloe acquittal split sharply along familiar lines. The New Patriotic Party, in a statement signed by General Secretary Justin Kodua Frimpong, described the ruling as a travesty of justice and alleged political interference in the judiciary.
The party pointed to the case of its Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, who remains in custody, and demanded his release on grounds of what it called a double standard in how the courts treat politically connected defendants.
Legal experts say the Sedina Tamakloe acquittal could set an important precedent for future corruption cases.
IMANI Africa president Franklin Cudjoe was equally blunt. He argued on social media that the ruling signalled to politically exposed persons that they could loot the state, flee, and eventually walk free once their party returned to power, a comment that quickly circulated across Ghanaian political commentary.
Government communicators have pushed back on suggestions that the judiciary acted under pressure, insisting the Court of Appeal reached its decision independently after a full hearing on the merits of the appeal.
Deputy Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, has previously noted that the appeal had been working its way through the courts since 2024, well before the extradition took place.
For now, the Sedina Tamakloe acquittal leaves Mrs Tamakloe Attionu a free woman, though the matter is far from settled. The Attorney General’s stay of execution application means the Supreme Court could revisit the case, and the outcome will shape how Ghana’s courts handle high profile corruption prosecutions involving officials who left the country before trial.
Sedina Tamakloe acquittal has reopened a broader argument about accountability for public officials, one that is unlikely to fade quickly given the scale of the alleged losses and the political weight attached to the case.
