They say every Ghanaian house has that one uncle who believes he alone carries the wisdom of the Ewe, Ga and Asante ancestors combined. At every gathering, he warns, lectures and scolds everybody, even the cat. He quotes proverbs nobody asked for and sprinkles Latin words he does not understand. When he steps outside, children whisper that if arrogance had a birthplace, it might be his hometown. Yet, when trouble comes, this same uncle will insist that he was only offering “constructive criticism”.
That is how our national conversation around the Office of the Special Prosecutor has begun to sound. Everybody is suddenly a constitutional expert. Everybody is a walking Supreme Court. And when the issue touches Martin Kpebu, the fire multiplies. Because Kpebu speaks with that same uncle energy. Confident. Loud. Moralising. A self-appointed anti-corruption prophet of the land. Nothing is too sacred for him to insult. Nothing is too big for him to dismiss with a casual wave and his trademark “This is unacceptable”. However, arrogance, I keep saying, cannot substitute for law.
The caution that the OSP must not exceed its anti-corruption mandate is entirely reasonable. The Special Prosecutor is not a parallel police service. The office is not meant to arrest citizens for offences unconnected to corruption enforcement. These are valid boundaries that must be respected. However, the claim that the OSP cannot arrest for obstruction or that such a matter belongs exclusively to the Ghana Police Service is simply not supported by the law. It overlooks entire sections of Act 959 and treats the OSP as if it were EOCO or CHRAJ, institutions that do not have the same arrest powers.
Here is the part many conveniently skip. Act 959 does not only deal with corruption offences. It creates its own offences. One of those offences is Section 79, titled Obstruction of an Authorised Officer. Section 79 states clearly that a person who willfully obstructs an authorised officer of the Office in the performance of the functions of the Office commits an offence. In other words, obstruction is an OSP offence created by the OSP Act itself. It is not borrowed from the Criminal Offences Act. It is not on loan from the Police Service. It is theirs. They own it. They enforce it. And they can arrest for it.
Then Section 80 makes the matter even clearer. It grants the OSP the same powers, authority and privileges as the police when it comes to investigation, arrest, search and detention. That means if the conduct in question falls under Act 959, the OSP has full power to act. Not part-time power. Not borrowed power. Full statutory power.
This is where commentators have some currency. It is correct that the OSP cannot roam the streets arresting people for offences unrelated to corruption enforcement. It is equally correct that the Police Service remains the general arresting authority. Thus, it is important that the OSP guard its mandate carefully so that it does not become a political toy.
You may dislike the OSP. You may dislike the Special Prosecutor. You may dislike the tone of their communications team, but your dislike cannot rewrite the statute. You cannot use sentiment to cancel the law. You cannot take Section 79 out of the Act simply because it does not fit the argument.
This brings us to the second part of this conversation. Public perception. The court of public opinion in Ghana is not a gentle institution. It is a noisy marketplace where the loudest voice becomes the judge, the jury and the foreman. And people like Kpebu know how to perform there. He knows the cameras. He knows the microphones. He knows how to twist one line into national outrage. If arrogance were a musical instrument, he would play it on national television during prime-time news.
So, if the OSP handles every incident with raw force, it feeds the noise. It gives the storytellers material. It gives the critics ammunition. It allows the loudest uncle in the family to shout that he has been vindicated once again.
Nevertheless, if criticism is fair, the law must still be the law. We can debate professionalism. We can debate communication. We can debate strategy. But we cannot debate the plain language of Section 79 and Section 80 simply because they inconvenience the popular narrative.
Therefore, in a democratic system, it is essential to balance prudence with resolve. The OSP must not act recklessly. But neither must it fold itself into irrelevance because someone with a large media footprint chooses to talk with arrogance and authority. Ghana created the OSP because corruption became sophisticated. The law gave the office teeth. You cannot now complain when the office bites using the very teeth Parliament gave it, and mind you, this has got nothing to do with what actually happened on the OSP’s premises when Kpebu retorted to some rounds of questioning.
In the end, the sober truth remains. The OSP must operate with restraint and professionalism, but it should not surrender its lawful authority simply to satisfy the crowd. The law is not a goat market. The law is the law, and any argument that ignores the plain text of Act 959 is not legal reasoning. It is a theatre. And let us be honest: every government in power will always feel jittery about an independent OSP, because, unlike the Attorney General’s office, the OSP can pursue members of the sitting administration without political filtration. That discomfort is precisely why the office exists. If Parliament someday decides that the OSP is unnecessary duplication, it can repeal the very statute that created it. However, for as long as the OSP remains on our books, it must not be weakened by partisan emotion. It should be allowed to perform its mandate without fear or favour.
About the Writer
Dr Manaseh M. Mintah is an Afrocentric scholar whose work spans environmental justice, African governance, and decolonial thought. Dr Mintah’s scholarship combines rigorous field research with a Pan-African intellectual commitment to restoring African agency, cultural identity, and self-determination in global affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]
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