Stop commenting on our investigations – A-G warns EOCO

General News of Thursday, July 11, 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

2019-07-11

Ms. Gloria Afua Akuffo, the Attorney General asked the Office of Economic and Organized Crime (EOCO) to open it to the public, while avoiding commenting on its investigations.

According to her, speaking in public about their investigations could only frustrate their efforts and give criminals too much information to allow them to change their way of operating.

"The criminals are still waiting to cover their tracks and therefore go out constantly to talk about a case, which allows them to hide more easily and thus to frustrate the results of investigations," she said.

She advised the statutory body to avoid following rumors and suspicions so as not to interfere.

Akuffo said this at the first national stakeholder forum organized by EOCO in Accra, with the aim of interacting with stakeholders and sharing information on cases reviewed, prosecutions and convictions obtained, as well as on recoveries. and confiscations.

The forum was part of EOCO's efforts to deepen the understanding of its operations by stakeholders and provide the opportunity for a constructive review and evaluation of the institution since its inception.

The theme was "Fighting Organized Crime in Ghana: A Shared Responsibility" and was sponsored by the EU-funded Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Program (PFRA), in partnership with the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC). ) and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

The Attorney General announced that the Witness Protection Act provided that vulnerable witnesses could be taken out of the country for protection, even if it meant changing the appearance of the person for reasons of protection.

She said that organized crime had become a social chancre, that we needed both "to master our democracy" and urged Ghanaians to collaborate with investigators to enable them to participate in solving problems.

Ms. Akuffo also sought the support of the media in the fight against organized crime and corruption.

COP Frank Adu-Poku (Rtd), executive director of EOCO, said that from March 20 to 31, 2019, the group found GHC99, with 165,369.29 being a proceeds of crime.

He said: "These are resources that could otherwise have been dissipated and lost to the benefit of the state".

He announced that during the same period, 1,855 cases in total had been investigated, including tax fraud, incitement to fraud, false pretense fraud, money laundering, cyber-prohibited activities, fraud. banking, wage fraud and human trafficking.

COP Adu-Poku (Rtd) noted that the majority of cases involved prohibited cybernetic activities, including romantic scams in which many young people had hired their foreign victims online and managed to make them lose huge numbers of people. are money, usually in foreign currency.

Representatives from the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Transparency International, the Institute of Economic Affairs, STAR Ghana, CHRAJ, NCCE, PIAC, the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the Ghana Police, Financial Intelligence Center, Bank of Ghana, Ghana Service and Food and Drugs Authority, among others.