DOMINIC AYINE WEAPONIZED LAW ENFORCEMENT BY BUYING SIX HEAVY-DUTY PRINTERS FOR EOCO WITH HIS OWN FUNDS
DOMINIC AYINE WEAPONIZED LAW ENFORCEMENT BY BUYING SIX HEAVY-DUTY PRINTERS FOR EOCO WITH HIS OWN FUNDS.
BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU
INTRODUCTION
The confession by Dr. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine at the proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that he bought six heavy-duty printers for the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) from his “own money or funds” after a briefing from the office is an unequivocal admission that the Attorney-General and the President John Dramani Mahama government set out to weaponize, and indeed weaponized, the law enforcement powers of EOCO as an instrument of political persecution or inquisition against its political adversaries in the name of genuine rule of law and democracy under the 1992 Constitution.
A Minister of State appointed pursuant to Article 78 of the 1992 Constitution and paid out of public funds pursuant to Article 71 thereof, has no business making selective personal donations to any public institution under his supervision on the grounds of lack of conflict of interest because he wants the entity to work efficiently. A personal donation of even one heavy-duty printer by a member of parliament who is also a cabinet minister to any public institution will be the equivalent of the Ministers monthly emoluments. The donation of six heavy-duty printers by such a minister to any entity, therefore, calls for urgent criminal investigations.
On Friday 31 October 2025 the mainstream and online media reported that Dominic Ayine, the Attorney-General had told the PAC of Parliament that he had bought six-heavy duty printers from his “own money or funds” for EOCO. In Ayine’s words: “There is no conflict in this because I wanted the entity to work efficiently, and that is why I had to make that donation.” But in fact and in law, Ayine’s conduct has every hallmark of conflict of interest, bribery and corruption, unconstitutionality, and an incorrigibly blatant weaponization of law enforcement for purely political objectives.
EOCO AS A PUBLIC FUNDED AGENCY
EOCO is established under the Economic and Organized Crime Office, Act, 2010 (Act 804) as a specialised agency to monitor and investigate economic and organised crime and on the authority of the Attorney-General prosecute these offences to recover the proceeds of crime, and for related matters.
The Executive Director of EOCO appointed by the President under Article 195 of the 1992 Constitution is a public office who “is responsible for the day to day administration and operations of the Office and is answerable to the Board in the performance of the functions under this Act.” (See Section 12 of Act 804). The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General has no role in the management of the entity.
As a specialized law enforcement agency purposefully set up to exercise independence and impartiality in the discharge of its functions and the observance of the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed the citizen under Chapter 5 of the Constitution, the enabling law provides for the funding of EOCO as stated under Section 15 of Act 804 as follows:
“15. The funds of the Office include
(a) moneys approved by Parliament, and
(b) donations, grants and any other moneys that are approved by the Minister responsible for Finance.” (Emphasis supplied).
The accounts and audit of EOCO together with its finances once appropriated by Parliament is by law the responsibility of the Governing Board and not the Minister responsible for the agency let alone a personal matter for the occupant (for the time being) of the office of the Minister for Justice and Attorney-General. Act 804 makes this abundantly clear in Section 16 which states inter alia that:
“16. (1) The Board shall keep books of account and proper records related to the Office in the form approved by the Auditor-General.
(2) The Board shall submit the accounts of the Office to the Auditor-General to audit within three months after the end of the financial year.
(3) The Auditor-General shall, not later than three months, after the receipt of the accounts, audit the accounts and forward a copy of the audit report to the Minister.”
There is no provision under Act 804 that permits the sector minister to make personal and private donations to EOCO to ensure the efficient working of the public entity. Indeed, there is no law in Ghana to my knowledge which enables a Minister of State to provide charity to state owned institutions under their supervision as this will definitely lead to corruption, abuse of office, and conflict of interest. This ought to have been known to the Chairperson of PAC who served two terms as a Deputy Minister of Finance under the preceding government.
Prima facie, therefore, commonsense should have told the PAC of Parliament that there was something amiss with Dominic Ayine’s boastful declaration for media consumption that he had philanthropically donated his personal resources to fund six heavy-duty printers for a fully subvented public institution with a governing board appointed under Article 70 of the Constitution and Section 4 of Act 804 with the assigned function in Section 5 thereof to “formulate policies necessary for the achievement of the objects of the Office.”
Dominic Ayine knows that any donation to EOCO by anybody including himself in his private capacity which does not satisfy Section 15(b) of Act 804 in the sense of having been approved by the Minister responsible for Finance is an unlawful donation tainted with illegality.
I will return to the legality of the alleged boastful donation from Dominic Ayine’s personal money or funds as he stated to purchase six heavy-duty printers for EOCO. Before then, I will be doing injustice to Dominic Ayine if I do not locate this discourse within the context in which he made the claim of personal donation of six heavy-duty printers to EOCO from his own money or funds as the case may be. The reader who has time on his hands should listen to the 59 minutes and 10 seconds proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee of 31 October 2025 particularly from the 45th minute onwards on YouTube Channel One - PAC Questions EOCO on Breaches Flagged in Auditor-General’s Report | Channel One News
THE PAC HEARING AND PERSONAL DONATION TO EOCO
The PAC was hearing evidence from representatives from public institutions under the Ministry of Justice. The Legal Aid Commission (LAC) was interrogated and heard first, followed by the Office of the Registrar of Companies, and then by the Economic and Organized Crime Office. The accumulated outstanding tax liability of GH¢241,291.33 by LAC to Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) with a final demand notice on 19 September 2023 to it from the GRA, and its unregistered lands in some regions of the country were the key issues for interrogation. PAC was told that only GHc50,000.00 out of the outstanding liability had been paid to GRA with the balance of about GHc191,291.37 still outstanding to GRA. When LAC was pressed on when it was going to settle its outstanding liabilities of GHc191,291.37, Dominic Ayine intervened to explain that LAC was a financially challenged subvented institution and arrangements had to be made to find funds to pay off those liabilities. There was no charity for LAC in contrast with the personal donation made by Dominic Ayine to EOCO as it subsequently transpired when the turn of hearing from EOCO came.
The main issues that gave rise to the question from the Member of Parliament for Kpando, Sebastian Deh, was on what constituted grants and grants in kind on table 136 of the 2024 Audit Report on EOCO dealing with: “Statement of Financial Performance for the year ending 31 December 2023” for purposes of the integrity of EOCO from undue influence in the execution of its functions. The Member of Parliament for Kpando, Sebastian Deh, posed the question “whether it was ethically appropriate for EOCO to receive in-kind grants, given the sensitive nature of its work.” and added that the Attorney-General may answer.”
Dominic Ayine’s response which is consistent with the Citi Newsroom quotation of what he said to the PAC was as follows:
“If you look at the listed entities, for instance, Bank of Ghana, it’s government; it’s part of the apparatus of state. EOCO does not receive such donations from private persons because of issues of conflict of interest. So, for instance, when I assumed office in February, one of the things that they came to brief me on was the fact that they did not have printers. We looked everywhere. We couldn’t find the money to buy the printers. So I bought printers out of my own funds for them. So there were six heavy-duty printers that I bought for them out of my own funds. There is no conflict in this because I wanted the entity to work efficiently, and that is why I had to make that donation.”
Dominic Ayine’s response in explanation to Mr. Sebastian Deh, the MP for Kpando’s request for clarification from the Attorney-General “whether it was ethically appropriate for EOCO to receive in-kind grants, given the sensitive nature of its work” shows that the alleged purchase of six heavy-duty printers from the personal money or funds of Ayine in his personal capacity for EOCO was unlawful under Section 15(b) of the law (which I have already quoted above). And it was intended to interfere with the impartial and independent operations of EOCO as a specialized law enforcement agency under Act 804. Six heavy-duty printers cost more than the outstanding balance of GHc191,291.37 demand notice from GRA to LAC which the PAC quizzed LAC on or the unearned salary and benefits of GHc25,648.23 paid to one David Tetteh from August 2023 to October 2023 by EOCO the PAC had quizzed EOCO about in the proceeding which I will examine and analyse in due course.
EXAMINATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE DONATION WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF WEAPONIZING EOCO FOR POLITICAL OBJECTIVES
On 19 December 2024 John Dramani Mahama as the President-Elect constituted a five member committee as a preparatory measure towards the rollout of his political manifesto promise called the “Operational Recover All Loot” (ORAL) project “.... to among other things receive and gather information from members of the public and other sources on suspected acts of corruption.” The ORAL Committee presented its report to the President on Monday 10 February 2025. In presenting the report to the President, the Chairman of the committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, shortly thereafter to be appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, “ revealed that the committee received 2,417 cases, including 1,493 complaints via phone calls and 924 via email.”
What the President did immediately upon receiving the ORAL Committee report is better stated by reportage of Myjoyonline as follows:
‘In receiving the report on Monday, February 10, he said: "I have promptly handed over the report to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and I give him firm instructions to commence immediate investigations into the cases reported in here."’
Dominic Ayine is the Attorney-General referred to by the President and he was the person who as a nominee for appointment defended the contested constitutionality of a president-elect setting up the ORAL committee as being constitutional and legal. Consequently, long before Dominic Ayine was appointed the Attorney-General he had developed a personal stake in the investigation and prosecution of persons suspected of the commission of corruption or corruption related or economic offences which his political party termed “Operation Recover All Loot.” Commonsense would alert the rational being that the looters are supposed to be the adversaries of the in-coming government of President John Mahama and Dominic Ayine, his would be Attorney-General and principal legal advisor.
The lead law enforcement agency chosen by Dominic Ayine upon receipt of the ORAL Committee report on 10 February 2025 to investigate and prosecute the allegations contained in the report was and is EOCO. This explains the staged coincidence of EOCO officially briefing the Attorney-General in February 2025 resulting in Dominic Ayine having to buy six heavy-duty printers from his own money or funds for EOCO to hunt the perceived adversaries of the government involved in the government’s Operation Recover All Loot project. This is consistent with the explanation Dominic Ayine gave in answer to the question from the MP for Kpando on Friday 31 October 2025 before PAC when he stated, inter alia, that:
“.... EOCO does not receive such donations from private persons because of issues of conflict of interest. So, for instance, when I assumed office in February, one of the things that they came to brief me on was the fact that they did not have printers. We looked everywhere. We couldn’t find the money to buy the printers. So I bought printers out of my own funds for them. So there were six heavy-duty printers that I bought for them out of my own funds.”
It was clearly unlawful for Dominic Ayine to donate or to buy and for EOCO to receive from him six heavy-duty printers for the public law enforcement agency. But the saying is that: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ....”
The changes that took place at the EOCO between 7 January 2025 when John Mahama assumed office as President and May 2025 leads to the conclusion that under the watch of Dominic Ayine as the Attorney-General, EOCO was systematically being weaponized as a political law enforcement agency to go after the government’s perceived political adversaries under the smoke screen of its Operation Recover All Loot project. The facts and evidence to support this conclusion are not far to find with a little thinking and commonsense.
On 22 January 2025, President Mahama swore in his gang of three confidants who were Deputy Ministers in his previous regime as the substantive Ministers of State of their previous ministries, namely, Cassiel Ato Forson, Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, and John Jinapor as Minister for Finance, Minister for Justice and Attorney-General and Minister for Energy respectively. On 24 January 2025, 3News reported that President John Dramani Mahama had terminated COP Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah’s appointment as the Executive Director of EOCO with instruction to her to hand over her duty to her deputy and return to the Ghana Police Service. The President appointed her deputy in charge of operations, Abdulai Bashiru Dapilah as the Acting Executive Director of EOCO with effect from 27 January 2025 (See EOCO publication of 30 January 2025). On 6 February 2025, President Mahama appointed a member of the ORAL Committee, Raymond Archer, as the Deputy Director of EOCO (See Ghanaweb.com). On 25 April 2025, Raymond Archer was appointed the Acting Executive Director of EOCO to replace Mr. Dapilah who was consigned to the National Security Secretariat.
It was during the President’s reorganization of EOCO through termination of appointments and appointment of new public officers into executive positions at EOCO to weaponize it as a political law enforcement agency of the government that the February 2025 briefing of the Attorney-General allegedly took place. And I can bet my last pesewa that COP Maame Tiwaa Addo-Danquah and her deputy for operations, Abdulai Bashiru Dapilah who later succeeded her as the Acting Executive Director of EOCO would disagree with Dominic Ayine that during their tenure at EOCO the efficiency of the Office was affected by the lack of six heavy-duty printers resulting from lack of budgetary allocation including retained internally generated funds.
The Audited Accounts which PAC was interrogating disclosed under “Financial Performance” that: “878. The Office ended the year with a surplus of GH¢3,194,620 in 2023 as compared with a surplus of GH¢2,765,382 recorded in 2022, representing an increase of 15.5% in its financial performance.” In the next paragraph, the audited accounts disclosed that: “879. Total income increased by 38.1% to GH¢53,718,950 in 2023 from GH¢38,904,062 in 2022 mainly due to an increase in government grants.” EOCO’s previous Executive Directors need accounting for what happened for the surplus recorded in the 2023 Audit Report to have been looted to the extent that in February 2025 when Abdulai Bashiru Dapilah was the Acting Executive Director of EOCO the Attorney-General was briefed that EOCO could not afford to purchase six heavy-duty printers for the efficient working of the agency from its own resources.
In the interim, Raymond Archer, a member of the ORAL Committee had been appointed Deputy Executive Director of EOCO on 6 February 2025 to assist in the recovery of the loot contained in the ORAL report he co-authored. After Raymond Archer learnt the ropes at EOCO between 6 February 2025 and 25 April 2025 as a deputy director of operations, he was appointed the Acting Executive Director of EOCO to be judge in his own cause of ORAL with Mr. Dapilah being consigned to the Siberia of the National Security Secretariat. The President proceeded to make other executive appointments of friends and cronies to EOCO to ensure the total weaponization of EOCO as a law enforcement agency against the political adversaries of Government.
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENT AND ACCOUNTABLE CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Every Ghanaian is enjoined by the Constitution to fight against all forms of abuse of public office and power including corruption and corruption-related commissions and omissions, and other economic crimes to prevent the direct or indirect looting or condonation of the looting of the public purse. Dominic Ayine, therefore, owes the electorate an explanation as to his reasons for accepting the nomination and appointment to be the Attorney-General of Ghana on a salary of about GHc65,201.17 a month while abusing his public office by purchasing six heavy-duty printers costing about a total of GHc300,000.00 at the conservatively estimated price of GHc50,000.00 per printer in February 2025 for one of the law enforcement agencies under his ministerial supervision in violation of the funding provisions of EOCO pursuant of Section 15(b) of Act 804.
The reader needs to be informed that because Dominic Ayine cleverly avoided stating and the PAC complicitly refused to demand for the type and cost of the heavy-duty printers he bought for EOCO, in writing this discourse, I had to obtain proforma invoices for the procurement of one heavy-duty printer. I received two quotations for Copier Canon IR2945I MFP / TONER CANON CEXV67 BLACK / FINISHER CANON L1 / CANON PEDESTAL S3 @ GHS78,600; and Copier Canon Advanced DX IRC3926I MFP / TONER CANON CEXV64 BLACK, CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW DADF CANON BA1 CANON PEDESTAL S3 FINISHER CANON L1 @ GHS85,600. It is from the foregoing that I derived the conservative estimated price of GHc50,000 per printer be it HP Copier or Canon Copier printer for the purposes of illustrating the probable quantum of the personal donation at stake in violation of the EOCO Act.
The Ghanaian electorate and all patriots need to demand that the government moves away from the nauseating tried and failed media optics and physiological information operations targeting vulnerable citizens suffering from poverty, want, and therefore given to hysteria of believing unproven allegation against suspects to transparency and accountability from the government in its stewardship of the national trust bequeathed to it at the last elections.
First and foremost, the position of Attorney-General is a constitutional office entrusted with enormous powers to be impartially and independently exercised in accordance with settled principles and conventions that do not allow the holder of the office to fund agencies responsible for law enforcement and prosecutions from his private resources. There is a world of a difference between public resources appropriated by Parliament to the Ministry of Justice and its entities and the private wealth of the Attorney-General. Consequently, the reasoning that because Dominic Ayine used his personal “money or funds” to buy six heavy-duty printers for EOCO there is no conflict of interests involved in the unlawful donation presents an argument based on illogical reasoning or syllogism in which the conclusion from the major and minor premises gives rise to a non sequitur.
Secondly, the PAC proceedings and the Audited Accounts of EOCO established that EOCO generates its own internal resources and posted a surplus of income over expenditure leading to the conclusions that the purchase of the six heavy-duty printers by Dominic Ayine was for the purpose of having unlawful control and influence over the independence and impartiality of the investigative and monitoring function of EOCO. The doubting Thomas should know that criminal justice administration which includes the investigatory and prosecutorial power can be unethically tampered with to doctor evidence against political adversaries and hide evidence favourable to their defence. This explain why criminal justice is founded upon the doctrine that: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” Prosecutorial abuse and staged convictions are an unprofessional reality!
Thirdly, when an Attorney-General makes it his forte to convict suspects under investigation in the court of public opinion even before he files charges against them in a court of law, any revelation of the involvement of such an unethical and unprofessional Attorney-General in unlawfully buying heavy-duty printers for his preferred law enforcement agency debases the administration of criminal justice, which includes the exercise of investigatory and prosecutorial powers. Any claim to respect for the constitutional guarantee of the due process of law for citizens suspected of crime in accordance with the rule of law becomes hollow.
And fourthly, in view of the evidence available from the Auditor-General’s Report before PAC that EOCO generates and retains internal income from its operations pursuant to law, the electorate needs an explanation from EOCO for accepting unlawful donations from Dominic Ayine in contravention of Section 15 of Act 804.
CONCLUSIONS
The foregoing discourse arising from the confession and admission by Dominic Ayine, the Attorney-General, that he personally funded the purchase of six heavy-duty printers for the EOCO to make its work more efficient when EOCO had surplus funds from approved government sources in its accounts has demonstrated that the private conduct of Dominic Ayine constitutes an unconstitutional and unlawful violation of Section 15 of the law establishing EOCO, Act 804.
The examination and analysis of the confession and admission of Dominic Ayine in unlawfully funding EOCO has also revealed a nauseating premeditated conspiracy by the John Dramani Mahama government to hijack and weaponized the law enforcement powers of the EOCO for use against its political adversaries. By the process of private donations to EOCO, the elimination, substitution, and packing of the management of EOCO with political affiliates, EOCO has become an adjunct of the governing political party. Members of the NDC and friends of the government who collated the ORAL report now sit as investigators and prosecutors of the allegations contained in their handiwork without any remorse of conflict of interest and abuse of power.
One may reasonably conclude from the examination and analysis of Dominic Ayine’s confession and admission of using his “own money or funds” to buy six heavy-duty printers for EOCO despite the prohibition of the law and the surplus public income in EOCO’s bank accounts that the alleged donation was intended to be a bribe for the management of EOCO who received same to influence their independent judgment in the execution of their public functions.
The examination and analysis of Dominic Ayine’s confessions of buying six heavy-duty printers for EOCO before PAC, a legislative committee of Parliament intended as a check on the abuse of executive power has been demonstrated in the foregoing discourse to be tainted with illegality, conflict of interest, and suspected criminal conduct. The fact that Dominic Ayine is also the Attorney-General makes it imperative that patriotic citizens across all the political divide call upon Parliament to institute a bipartisan committee of Parliament to investigate his unlawful conduct and the weaponization of law enforcement for purposes of political party score settling.
When the system of criminal justice administration becomes a politically partisan enterprise weaponized for vengeance against political adversaries as this discourse has shown, the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens to the equal protection of the law and a fair trial under a regime of democracy and the rule of law becomes just a political theatre of rhetorical deception. We the People of Ghana did not vote for this as our system of governance. We need to speak up in defence of impartial criminal justice administration as the Constitution demands of every patriotic citizen. Make your voice heard now, do not sit on the fence!
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
6 November 2025.