The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has said that its policy of issuing media releases after every major judicial pronouncement or decision is not an attack on the judiciary.
Instead, it says it is to inform the public of judges’ opinions in cases involving the OSP and state the position of the Office on the opinion in question, whether it is progressing the fight against corruption or otherwise.
Addressing journalists in Accra on Wednesday, the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, said, “Those who applaud the policy see it for what it is. Thus, public information and assurances of the position of the Office in the fight against corruption, and nothing more. Those who decry it see it as an attack on the judiciary.”
He said he had been admonished by well-meaning lawyers that some judges were opposed to the policy and if the Office persisted, the judges would gang up against the Office and throw out all our cases.
As such, the Special Prosecutor told journalists that his experience in law over the years testified that he would be the last person to head and lead an institution to attack the judiciary.
“It would be absolutely of no good and utility should it be the case that the OSP is set against the judiciary or that the judiciary is against the OSP. That would surely spell disastrous consequences for this Republic, especially in the fight against corruption to the unending glee of corrupt persons. The OSP would not countenance for a moment such an impression,” he stated.
Mr Agyebeng further reiterated that “What we do is a statement of our position on judicial pronouncements in the context of the fight against corruption and whether it benefits that quest or otherwise. And this so, whether the judicial decision in question is favourable or otherwise to the position of the OSP.”
