Lawyer Kwesi Botwey Jr has criticised the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) over its handling of the case involving former Executive Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCCoD), Dennis Edward Aboagye, popularly known as “Miracles,” arguing that the investigative body should have filed formal charges instead of issuing a public statement.
Addressing journalists, Mr Botwey Jr said the appropriate legal procedure would have been for EOCO to present a charge sheet if it believed sufficient evidence existed to prosecute Mr Aboagye.
According to him, the absence of any formal charges before a court undermined the relevance of the agency’s public communication.
“Ordinarily, what I was expecting to see was a charge sheet. For EOCO to say that the Attorney General has arraigned Dennis before a court of competent jurisdiction and that he has been charged with offence A, B, C or X, Y, Z. But you don’t issue a press statement to pronounce the person guilty until the person has proven himself innocent,” he said.
Mr Botwey Jr further questioned the substance of EOCO’s statement, particularly references to the alleged refund of funds by another individual connected to the investigation.
“In any case, what did the statement say? It said someone has started refunding the money… and so what? The statement doesn’t make any sense,” he remarked.
The lawyer also criticised the document for not bearing the signature of any official, suggesting that the omission reflected a lack of confidence in its contents.
“No one could confidently append a signature to it. Did you see any signatory under the statement? Nobody had the audacity to sign the statement because it was a very useless and reckless statement,” he said.
He further described the statement as a hurried response to public criticism, alleging that it contained numerous typographical and grammatical errors.
“It was issued in panic as a reaction to the ongoing issues. The statement was full of typographical errors, full of grammatical mistakes. It is a complete mess… It’s bogus. We shouldn’t treat the statement with any urgency,” he stated.
Mr Botwey Jr maintained that, at the time of his comments, Mr Aboagye had not been formally charged before any court.
“As we speak, there is no charge sheet before any court. He’s not been charged,” he said.
His remarks come amid ongoing public debate over EOCO’s investigation into alleged financial irregularities involving Mr Aboagye, with differing opinions emerging over the agency’s handling of the case and its public communication strategy.
