Lawyer and lecturer at the Ghana School of Law, Bobby Banson, has backed President John Mahama’s assertion that calls for the abolition of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) are premature.
He insisted that the institution continues to play a vital role in Ghana’s anti-corruption framework.
Speaking on Joy News’ Newsfile programme on Saturday, Mr Banson said the OSP, established by law in 2017, is still a relatively young institution and must be given time to achieve optimum efficiency.
“I agree with His Excellency the President when he said the call for its abolition is premature,” Mr Banson remarked.
“We must accept that the OSP, the law itself, came into being in 2017. Less than 10 years, there is no institution that has achieved optimum efficiency within 10 years of its establishment.”
He acknowledged that the office has faced challenges but argued that these should not be interpreted as failure.
“I am not saying that the office of the OSP has excelled, but I don’t think that it has failed,” Mr Banson said. “As a statutory office, it takes time. It was established to fill a gap in the prosecutorial powers of the Attorney-General. Until the office of the Attorney-General is decoupled from the Ministry of Justice, there may not always be the political will for an Attorney-General to prosecute members of his own political party.”
Mr Banson stressed that isolated unfavourable court decisions should not be used as a basis to dismantle the institution.
“If we insist on letting the OSP go because there has been one or two unfavourable court decisions, then I ask myself what happens to all other state institutions that we have invested in since independence, which many complain have not met their obligations,” he said.
He called on citizens, the media, and political actors to focus on strengthening the institution rather than attacking individuals in leadership positions.
“A lot of the narrative has been directed at the persons in charge instead of looking at the institution that the framers of the act sought to establish,” Mr Banson noted.
“Ghana is not the only country that has an independent prosecutor with this mandate or framework.”
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