Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament, has said Ghana cannot continue to allocate huge sums to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) when the country is not getting the results.
According to Speaker Bagbin, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was created to prove a point that it was prepared to tackle corruption.
He further questioned the constitutional basis of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Speaking during a debate in Parliament on Thursday, November 4, 2024, Speaker Bagbin stated, “If you recall, during the deliberation on the OSP, a number of us stated on the floor of this House that it has no constitutional basis, but we wanted to signal to the world that we are going to fight corruption”.
“At the end of the day…we cannot continue to allocate huge sums to the same office when we are not getting the results. This is one of the agencies we should be looking at,” he remarked.
His remarks follow the ongoing back-and-forth between Martin Kpebu and the Special Prosecutor over his handling of corruption-related cases in the country.
Meanwhile, details have emerged of the three petitions seeking the removal of Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng.
It will be recalled, news broke that President John Dramani Mahama has forwarded three petitions seeking the removal of Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng to the Chief Justice, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie.
According to the report, President Mahama received 10 petitions for the removal of two heads of public institutions and two deputies appointed under Article 70 of the Constitution.
In one of the petitions filed by the Coalition for Integrity in Governance (COFIIG) accused Kissi Agyebeng of incompetence, financial mismanagement, conflict of interest, and negligence of duty.
Executive Chairman of COFIIG, Simon Yaw Awadzi, called on President Mahama to initiate removal proceedings under Section 15 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 and Article 146 of Ghana’s constitution.
The group alleged that Kissi Agyebeng mismanaged public funds allocated to the Office of the Special Prosecutor since 2021, highlighting that over GHS364 million in budgetary allocations were made without any publicly available audited financial statements.
The group also accuses the Special Prosecutor of poor performance, pointing to the absence of major corruption convictions or significant asset recoveries despite the resources at his disposal.
COFIIG petition further references alleged misbehaviour, noting claims that the Special Prosecutor withheld investigative dockets from the Attorney-General, delaying the extradition process of former finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
They further raised concerns of conflict-of-interest concerns, claiming that Mr Agyebeng’s nomination was influenced by a senior figure of the Akufo-Addo government, which creates uncertainty about his neutrality, calling for a forensic audit of the OSP’s accounts.
A second petition received by Shamima Muslim, the Deputy Presidential Spokesperson, on behalf of President Mahama, filed by Apostle Abraham Lincoln Larbi of the Agro Ne Fom’ protestors, alleged that Kissi Agyebeng connived with Ken Ofori-Atta to help him evade accountability and accused him of refusing to submit the docket needed for the extradition of Ken Ofori-Atta to the Office of the Attorney General.
According to reports, the third petition also focuses entirely on the SML matter, alleging that the Special Prosecutor allowed Ken Ofori-Atta to flee, failed to use his police powers to arrest him.
The petition also accused the Special Prosecutor of lying about attempts to seek support from security agencies.