Private Legal Practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has reacted to the High Court’s decision to strip the Office of the Special Prosecutors (OSP) of prosecutorial powers.
According to Lawyer Kpebu, it’s a sweet decision because, whether the Supreme Court will toe the same line as the High Court or not, it’s a different matter.
He highlighted that the High Court decision will bring back conversations around the Special Prosecutor, especially the misgovernance.
Speaking in an interview with GHOne TV on April 16, 2026, Martin Kpebu explained, “It’s a sweet decision, but please listen carefully to what follows. I say it’s a sweet decision because, look, whether the Supreme Court will toe the same line as the High Court or not, it’s a different matter.
It’s sweet for me, because right now it brings back to the fore conversations around the Special Prosecutor, especially the misgovernance that’s gone on there, the things I’ve been crying about, and, you know, all the back and forth.
“So this decision has brought the discussion around his governance back to the fore, so we can begin to, sorry, we can continue to hold him accountable, how he allowed Ofori-Atta to flee, etcetera.
For me, they’re intertwined because there’s no way they can finish talking about this decision and not visit what he did when Ofori-Atta fled, and the fact that he didn’t start the investigations into the SML matter until he had fled, etc. So, for me, that’s why I say it is sweet,” he said.
Kpebu added, “When it comes to the merits of the case itself, what I say is that, look, in law, as we’ve said time and again, there are different schools of thought. Even the Supreme Court judges, you find they don’t subscribe to the same school of thought. You will find those who do a lot of the modern purposive approach, which also, in actual fact, encapsulates the literalist, etc.
Then you would find that when it comes to the philosophies, some are what we call they belong to the sociological school. We have the realists, to make it simple. All I’m saying in simple words is that the judges don’t think alike. So because they don’t think alike, it’s possible that when the Supreme Court comes to deal with the Noah Adamtey case, they can rule in a way that will be the same as what the High Court judge has ruled, that is to say, the OSP cannot prosecute a case without express authorisation from the Attorney General,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Justice Srem-Sai, the Deputy Attorney General, has revealed that the Attorney-General’s Department has no intention not to comply with a High Court directive.
According to Dr Justice Srem-Sai, the Attorney-General will assume control over all OSP criminal prosecutions as directed by the High Court.
In a post on Facebook, Dr Justice Srem Sai wrote, “Yesterday, the High Court ordered the Honourable Attorney-General to take over all the cases which the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) is prosecuting until such a time that the OSP obtains the constitutionally required authorisation to prosecute.
The order was given in a case brought by an accused person, one PETER ARCHIBLOD HYDE, who was being prosecuted by the OSP. In the case, PETER ARCHIBLOD HYDE asked the High Court to direct the OSP to show that its officers are authorised by the Attorney-General to initiate or conduct prosecution.
PETER ARCHIBLOD HYDE’s lawyer argued that both the Constitution and the OSP Act require that the OSP to prosecute, but on the authorisation of the Attorney General. The Court’s records show, however, that the OSP was unable to show that it had the Attorney-General’s authorisation – hence the Court’s order above.
The Honourable Attorney-General has no intention or capacity to disobey or ignore the High Court’s order. Accordingly, the Office of the Attorney-General will, in the coming days, begin to take the necessary steps to give effect to the Court’s order”.
His statement follows the Accra High Court, which ruled that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has no authority to prosecute cases.
The High Court ruling stripped the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) of its prosecutorial powers, handing them to the Attorney General (AG) to take over all criminal prosecutions.
On Wednesday, April 15, the High Court ruling was delivered, representing a significant development in Ghana’s legal and anti-corruption landscape.
Also, the court declared that all ongoing prosecutions initiated by the OSP are null and void, a decision that immediately halts multiple high-profile and ongoing cases being tried in various courts across the country.
Reports suggest the presiding judge, John Nyante Nyadu, further awarded costs of GH₵15,000 against the OSP, underscoring the Court’s position on the matter and the procedural concerns raised in the case.
Watch the video below:
It is a sweet decision… – Private Legal Practitioner, Martin Kpebu reacts to High Court's decision on OSP's prosecutorial powers #GHOneNews #EIBNetwork #GHOneTV #NewsAlert pic.twitter.com/XvRxP9uAhX
— GHOne TV (@ghonetv) April 16, 2026