US based Ghanaian lawyer Professor Kwaku Asare has ripped to shreds the pathetic defence of Mensa Otabil to the ‘chop chop’ at Capital Bank – to wit that he wasn’t involved with ‘day to day’ running of the bank.
According to Prof. Asare, reiterating a point raised by many others including GhanaCelebrities.Com Founding Editor Chris-Vincent Agyapong Febiri, negligence leading to the commitment of a crime can sometimes be found as grave as the crime itself.
Thus for Mensa Otabil, as board chair of Capital Bank at the time these issues happened – if he didn’t even know about it, failing to act and letting such crimes occur is as wrong as the crimes themselves.
Prof Asare posted on Facebook after Otabil released a statement early today attempting to shirk responsibility for his role in the corruption at the bank.
“The test for criminal culpability is not whether or not one is a non-executive director. The test is whether a director exercised due care and diligence to prevent the commission of an offense, which includes violating any provisions of the Banking Act and Regulations or even knowingly making an incorrect statement in a document submitted pursuant to same.” Prof Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, wrote.
“It is a very serious offense for non-executive directors to sleep on the job while depositors’ deposits are used to finance the greed of a few faux bankers. Da Yie!”