Atta Akyea: OSP would be redundant without prosecutorial authority
Private legal practitioner and former Works and Housing Minister, Samuel Atta Akyea, has dismissed suggestions that the Office of the Special Prosecutor was never intended to exercise independent prosecutorial authority, insisting that such claims undermine the rationale behind its creation.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, April 17, Atta Akyea argued that it would be misleading to suggest that key state actors, including the Attorney General and Parliament, were unaware that some prosecutorial powers would be ceded to the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
According to him, the establishment of the Special Prosecutor was a deliberate move to create an independent prosecutorial body, distinct from the traditional powers exercised under Article 88 of the Constitution by the Attorney General.
“If the Attorney General was not aware that some of his powers would be taken away and handed to the Special Prosecutor without disturbing the constitutional arrangement, then it would mean the Attorney General, and even Parliament, failed to appreciate the implications of the law,” he stated.
Atta Akyea stressed that any interpretation suggesting the Special Prosecutor lacks prosecutorial authority would render the office redundant. He argued that reducing the institution to a mere investigative body would defeat its purpose and blur the distinction between it and existing law enforcement structures.
He maintained that if the Special Prosecutor is only expected to investigate and hand over findings to the Attorney General for prosecution, then its role would be no different from that of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service.
“In that case, it becomes a glorified investigative outfit that simply compiles dockets and passes them on. That raises a fundamental question about its relevance when the CID already performs similar functions,” he added.
The former minister described such arguments as untenable, insisting that the Office of the Special Prosecutor must be allowed to operate with the prosecutorial independence envisioned at its inception to combat corruption effectively.
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