Investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni has raised concerns over the whereabouts and custody of convicted former Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) Chief Executive Officer, Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, urging authorities to be transparent about her exact location and detention arrangements.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Citi FM on Saturday, June 20, Manasseh said he does not accept assurances that Sedina Tamakloe is currently in custody, arguing that official communication on the matter has not been sufficiently clear.
“Long before her coming in, I have heard and many people in Ghana may also have heard that we have a system in this country where some influential people when they are convicted and said to be in jail don’t actually go to prison,” he said.
He suggested that sections of the public believe some convicted persons are kept in undisclosed locations and occasionally moved in and out of custody, a practice he described as troubling.
“It is a whole lot of mess,” he said.
Manasseh argued that there is nothing preventing authorities from clearly disclosing where a convicted person is being held, including the specific facility.
“I don’t think anything prevents this administration from telling us that look, this person has come in, he came in on this date, he is in Nsawam prison or he is at the Cantonments Police cells and if everybody goes there they will find him,” he stated.
He added that a lack of clarity only fuels public suspicion and undermines trust in the justice system.
“I don’t think anything stops the government from being clear on that. So where the government intends to hide something, where there is no reason to hide it, it only fuels suspicion,” he said.
Manasseh further said he personally cannot accept claims that Sedina Attionu is in custody without independent verification.
“As I sit here I cannot trust that Sedina Tamakloe is in custody just because somebody tells me she is in custody. I don’t trust that,” he said.
He questioned why authorities cannot simply disclose where she is being held and under what conditions.
“What stops the government from telling us where she is, which prison, which police cells she is being kept?” he asked.
Sedina Attionu-Tamakloe, who was convicted in absentia in 2024 and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for causing financial loss to the state and stealing, was recently extradited from the United States and received by security personnel upon arrival in Ghana.
She is expected to serve her sentence following a lengthy extradition process initiated by the Government of Ghana after she failed to return from a medical trip abroad during her trial.
