"Attorney-Generals� Office Has �Broken Down Into Pieces�.

Dr. Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, a Former President of the Ghana Football Association says the Court verdict against the Economic and Organised Crime Office over its raid on GFA�s offices, indicate that the Attorney-Generals� office has �broken down into pieces�. The staunch member of the New Patriotic Party says Government hid under the cloak of the EOCO�s independent status, and acted vindictively against the GFA, whose activities must be devoid of governmental interference. He told Citi News Government will continue to lose more cases if it fails to parade good lawyers to handle its cases under Mr. Martin Hamidu, the Attorney-General. A Human Rights Court on Friday May 13, asked EOCO to pay GH�50,000 as damages to the GFA for raiding its offices on December 7, 2010. In that raid, security operatives made away with vital documents and nine computers, on the grounds of alleged corruption in the FA. The items were later returned after certain information had been extracted. But the GFA sued EOCO saying it had overstepped its boundary. Lawyers for the EOCO are unhappy about the ruling and have vowed to appeal against it. But Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe says the ruling is in the right direction and a victory for the rule of law. �I think the Court ruling is very good for our democracy in the sense that no Government agent or quasi Government agent can just break into an office that is independent of Government and just start collecting their documents and computers away. The FA is an independent organisation and I think it is high time they are left to run their affairs alone. They have statutes with which they work so if for one reason or the other they go wrong, you can take them to Court if you choose. But I believe strongly that if they have not offended anyone or nothing has been done against any organisation, there is no need at all trying to get on their back� he said. Dr. Tamakloe said Government cannot escape blame in the latest development, because the EOCO acted on the orders of certain elements in Government, but only returned the items when they realized they had goofed. �Once again, this Government has lost a major case in Court under a new Attorney-General and this must be taken very serious. It�s not positive for the Government in the sense that the Government agents, who went to harass the FA, did not do that without the knowledge of Government. I am very sure that Government was in the know. And even when they went to the FA offices, they were supposed to collect certain documents, but they collected anything that they thought they could collect away. This is a clear mark to Government that this country has reached a stage that no Government agent can just walk into the house of anyone and arrest the person or beat him up. The Courts are there and they must be allowed to work� he noted. �The items they collected from the FA, as we speak now, have they sent the FA to Court or brought any charges against them? So you can see that somebody was trying to be vindictive and that is exactly what happened. It serves Government right and they will keep on losing their cases until they get good lawyers to deal with their cases for them. The Attorney-General�s Department is totally broken down to pieces now� he said. Dr. Tamakloe says the Government by this development has been thought a lesson that should put them back on the right track in dealing with the FA.