Attorney General Dr. Dominic Ayine has defended what some have described as unfair bail conditions, insisting the measures are necessary because of the severity and financial magnitude of the crimes currently under investigation.
His comments come amid growing public concern, particularly from members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), who argue that the government is imposing unfair bail terms on accused persons.
Speaking in Parliament on November 19, Dr. Ayine dismissed allegations that investigative bodies under his ministry are acting unreasonably or with political motive.
According to him, law enforcement agencies are simply responding to the scale of the offences before them.
Introducing his explanation, the Attorney General noted that agencies such as the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) are acting within the law.
“I have already made it abundantly clear that the Economic and Organized Crime Office and other law enforcement agencies under my ministry are not acting habitually,” he said.
He went on to stress that bail decisions are determined by the seriousness of each case.
“Bail depends on the gravity of the crime and so what we are seeing now is that the sums involved in the criminal investigations are very huge,” he explained.
Dr. Ayine further argued that setting low bail figures in cases involving massive financial loss would pose a risk to the justice process.
“And because they’re very huge, if you set very low bail conditions in terms of the sums, the likelihood is that when the person is unavailable to stand trial, whatever you are able to estreat in justification will not be able to offset the criminal liability that is involved,” he said.
“If you have a situation where the suspect is accused of causing financial loss to the state in the sum of 1 billion Ghana cedis or stealing a sum of 31.1 million Ghana cedis, you cannot set bail terms that are unjustifiably low,” he argued.
“So it is the magnitude of the offenses we are dealing with that dictates that we set bail sums that reasonably justify the crimes that have been alleged to have been committed,” he stated.
