The Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) has accused the judiciary and some members of the bench of interfering in its work and thwarting its efforts to tackle corruption in high public offices.
Speaking at a press conference held today, Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng said judicial decisions in involving the OSP in recent times appear repressive and dismissive of the office and its mandate of preventing corruption and investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of such acts.
“There appears to be a developing trend of rather regressive and dismissive judicial decisions in respect of cases involving the OSP with troubling consequences and it seems to us, a careful examination of these outcomes, portends a disturbing spectacle that the fight against corruption is being hampered to disbenefit of us,” he stated.
Mr. Agyebeng, who cited some of those judicial decisions, stated that such judgements set a bad precedence as they are likely to open the floodgates for suspects to seek to use to the judiciary to frustrate the office and prevent it from investigating them.
“The real and present danger looms largely on the consideration that by so doing, persons under investigation would end up conscripting the judiciary to cloth them with immunity from investigations and prosecutions. With this development, it will not be long, a suspected murderer or armed robbers will boldly walk to court with the unthinkable prayer that the court should injunct law enforcement agencies from investigating him”.
The OSP’s accusation comes on the back of a ruling by an Accra High Court that quashed a report by the anti-graft agency implicating top officials of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.
The court ruled that OSP has no such authority to make the adverse findings it made against the two officials, accusing the office of arrogating to itself the powers of a court.
But reacting at the press conference, the Special Prosecutor disagreed that his office exceeded its mandate in making the findings against the two.
He also accused the judge, who presided over the case, of going beyond his jurisdiction when he restrained him from further investigating the officials
He also accused the judge, who presided over the case, of going beyond his jurisdiction when he restrained him from further investigating the now former officials of the Customs Division of the GRA.
The Special Prosecutor further faulted the courts’ decisions in cases involving former Sanitation Minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah, former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) and the late former CEO of the Forestry Commission.
He contended that such decisions are inimical to the fight against corruption and the general administration of justice in the country
