Head of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, has expressed frustration with the difficulty in gathering evidence to prosecute numerous crime cases brought to her office.
COP Tiwaa Addo-Danquah highlighted the issue of people making unsubstantiated public allegations of crimes against others before cases are brought to EOCO. She emphasized that, in the court of public opinion, the accused individuals are already deemed guilty. However, when it comes to providing evidence to support these claims, individuals often refrain from cooperating.
“Evidence gathering is one of the major challenges that we face. You have a lot of people making wild allegations, but when it comes to supporting the allegations with evidence, you won’t even hear from them again,” She told the media.
COP Tiwaa Addo-Danquah‘s remarks follow Ghana’s consistent score of 43 out of 100 in the Corruption Perceptions Index report by Transparency International for the fourth consecutive year.
She, heading one of the institutions mandated to fight corruption, emphasized that many individuals tend to make baseless accusations without providing supporting evidence. Consequently, when it is time to prosecute these cases, the lack of available evidence becomes a significant obstacle.
“The point is that it is not about saying something, and it is not about how many media houses are carrying out that allegation. It is about your ability to put credible evidence together that will be presented to a judge for prosecution, and remember the judges are not listening to whatever is being said on social media,” she lamented.
COP Tiwaa Addo-Danquah further explained that citizens often misunderstand the challenges faced by her institution, leading to perceptions of bias or selectivity.
“So when you have a case where the person has been tried, convicted in the court of public opinion, we are unable to gather the kind of evidence that will (succeed) at the court. The public will say that no, the institution is either not working well or there is something wrong with it.
“Like any other crime, you need evidence to prosecute. It is not because you say it is not about the truth. It is about your ability to gather information to do that,” she added.