Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MASLOC, Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, landed in Ghana on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, following her extradition from the United States.
Upon arrival at the Accra International Airport, she was handed over to the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Immigration Service to begin serving her sentence.
The former MASLOC boss was earlier tried in absentia and jailed in April 2024, together with Daniel Axim, a former Chief Operating Officer of MASLOC, who was sentenced to five years in prison with hard labour for causing financial loss of GH¢90 million to the state.
Her woes began in 2017 after an investigation by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) showed fraudulent disbursements of funds during her tenure.
She was accused of embezzling GH¢3.19 million during her tenure at MASLOC and causing a deliberate financial loss of GH¢1.97 million to the state. She was also accused of making unauthorised commitments resulting in financial obligations totalling GH¢61.74 million for the government.
That said, here is a breakdown of all the money she had been accused of stealing or misappropriating:
1. Appropriating GH¢500,000 of MASLOC funds for personal use after it was returned from a private microfinance company, Obaatanpa Micro-Finance Company Limited.
2. Withdrawing GH¢1,816,000 in tranches after the MASLOC board approved GH¢1,706,000 of MASLOC funds for a countrywide sensitisation.
3. Out of the GH¢1,816,000 for the sensitisation programme, only GH¢1,300 was spent on refreshments for some beneficiaries in the Volta, Greater Accra, and Brong-Ahafo Regions, with no programme taking place in the other regions.
4. Appropriating only GH¢579,800 out of the sum of GH¢1,465,035 meant for the victims of the Kantamanto Market fire disaster in 2013.
5. Procuring 150 Chevy Aveo saloons at a unit cost of GH¢74,495 ($18,883.39) instead of GH¢47,346.93 ($12,009.91), 100 Chevy Sparklite at a unit cost of GH¢65,095.00 ($16,500.63) instead of GH¢35,918.37 ($9,104.77) and 33-seater Isuzu buses at a unit cost of GH¢445,560 ($112,942.96) in 2013 without PPA approval.
6. Procuring 200 pieces of Samsung B310 mobile dual-sim phones under a project called PINCO Project Market Survey at an inflated cost of GH¢93,412 when the market value of the phones was GH¢24,400, in 2016.
7. Authorising ex-gratia amounts of GH¢135,592.33 and GH¢82,218.76 for herself and her deputy respectively.
8. Paying herself and her deputy GH¢28,445.94 and GH¢27,486.62, respectively, purportedly in lieu of leave.
Appeal <|b>
Following her recent arrival in Ghana and conviction, details of an appeal she filed seeking to overturn her sentence at the Accra High Court, which was filed on February 10, 2026, have emerged.
The appeal challenges her conviction on multiple charges, including conspiracy to steal, stealing, conspiracy to cause financial loss to the state, causing financial loss to the state, causing loss to public property, improper payment of public funds, unauthorised commitment resulting in financial obligation to government, money laundering, and breach of the Public Procurement Act.
Sedina Tamakloe Attionu, through her lawyers, argued that several counts on the charge sheet merely repeated the wording of the law without clearly stating the specific acts or omissions that formed the basis of the allegations, violating Article 19(2)(d) of the 1992 Constitution, which guarantees an accused person the right to be informed in detail of the nature of the offence being charged.
The appeal also cited previous decisions of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, which the defence said established that defective particulars of offences could render a conviction unsafe.
The question now is whether she will win her appeal and gain her freedom.
Source: ghanaweb