Godfred Dame Snowballing Scandals Roll from Ambulance Case to Angela Lists Adamus
Former Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has become the focus of a fresh conflict-of-interest controversy after taking up private legal representation for a mining company in a case where he previously advised the state.
Dame, who served as the country’s principal legal advisor until the New Patriotic Party left office in January 2025, is now counsel for Adamus Resources Limited, Nguvu Mining Limited and their principal, Angela List. The case, Adamus Resources PTY v. Adamus Resources Limited & Ors (Suit No. GJ-CM/ACC/0309/2025), concerns ownership of a Ghanaian gold mining subsidiary.
The switch occurred on 25 August 2025, when the defendants formally notified the High Court that they had appointed Dame and his firm, Dame & Partners, as their new legal representatives. The notice, dated 25 April 2025, was filed just seven months after Dame left public office.
What makes the move legally precarious is that Dame, while Attorney General between 2022 and January 2025, had already provided formal legal advice on the same dispute to Angela List now called ‘Angela Atier’ as ‘and her entities.
On 16 January 2024, List wrote to the Attorney General’s office seeking guidance on whether Adamus/Nguvu could continue mining operations despite an interlocutory injunction filed against them. Dame responded through his deputy, Diana Asona Dapaah, with a detailed advisory on 23 January 2024.
The advisory argued that merely serving notice of an injunction application did not constitute an injunction itself. It warned that “an unmeasured and blanket proposition” that service of a notice equates to an injunction “not only offends legal and equitable principles, but also has the dire consequences of negatively impacting commerce.”
Dame’s office concluded that the court “shall refrain from making any orders that shall stall the business of the company, which is a going concern.” The letter explicitly stated the advisory was issued “at the express behest” of the Attorney-General.
Armed with this advice, Nguvu Mines continued operations and exported gold until the current administration suspended the licence and launched an investigation into alleged illegal mining.
The dispute originates from the collapse of the marriage between Angela List and her Ghanaian-Australian husband, Paul List. The couple had jointly built BCM International, a mining contracting firm. Following divorce proceedings in 2021–2022, a battle emerged over corporate assets, triggering multiple lawsuits in Ghana and Australia.
Prior to the marital crisis, BCM Group had acquired Adamus Resources. The parent company holding the 90% majority stake in Adamus Ghana was Adamus Australia (Adamus Resources Pty Ltd), tied directly to Paul List and his associates.
On 7 November 2022, Angela List signed a purported share transfer agreement moving the 90% stake from Adamus Australia to Nguvu Mining Limited. On the same day, she wrote to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources then headed by John Peter Amewu to request approval for the change of controlling interest. Amewu obliged.
Paul List viewed this as an illegal hostile takeover. But Angela List had connections to the Akufo-Addo government, with the regime reportedly deploying National Security operatives against her estranged husband, including breaking into his home.
The Professional Conduct and Etiquette Rules, 2020 (LI 2423), under Rule 18, explicitly prohibits a lawyer from accepting private employment in a matter where they had “substantial responsibility or involvement as a public officer.” Article 284 of the 1992 Constitution similarly states that “a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts or is likely to conflict with the performance of the functions of his office.”
The General Legal Council’s rules generally prohibit a lawyer who leaves public service from acting for a private party in a lawsuit directly connected to executive decisions or formal legal opinions they issued while in government.
This is not the first time Dame has been accused of professional misconduct. In 2024, while still Attorney General, he was alleged to have coached Richard Jakpa, an accused person in the ambulance procurement case against then Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson, to lie under oath.
Jakpa testified on 27 June 2024 that Dame had pressured him to fake illness so the court would grant an adjournment, allowing Dame to travel abroad. The claim was supported by a leaked telephone conversation between Dame and Jakpa in which the former Attorney General appears to be coaching Jakpa on testimony.
The Government of Ghana holds a 10% stake in Adamus Resources, which made the state a direct stakeholder in the dispute while Dame was Attorney General. It remains unclear whether the General Legal Council will review Dame’s switch to private practice in a matter where he previously advised the state.
For now, the case continues, with Dame now representing the very parties he once advised and Ghana’s legal community watching closely for any regulatory response.
