A Professor at the University of Ghana, Ransford Gyampo, has observed that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) under the leadership of Kissi Agyebeng rushes to do its work. The OSP keeps failing in the process of rushing to carry out its duties, he added.
Prof Gyampo’s comment was after he said he did not believe the comments by the OSP to the effect that Member of Parliament for Asante Akim North Kwame Andy Appiah-Kubi was not cooperative in the investigations of the bribery allegations that he made. Supporting his comment, Prof Gyampo touted the credentials of Appiah-Kubi as an astute lawyer who knows what he talks about.
“I do not believe in the conclusion that Andy Appiah-Kubi was not trying to cooperate. I don’t trust what OSP is saying. I know Appiah-Kubi, he is a lawyer and he knows what he says at any particular time as a lawyer and so I will find it difficult to agree with the OSP,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, January 6.
“The OSP is always rushing and is in a hurry to please people, if he keeps rushing he will keep failing. If he fails consecutively like this he will shut the door for future appointments of young people, he should take his time to do a lot of hard work.”
The Special Prosecutor (SP) has directed the closure of investigations into allegations that was made by Appiah-Kubi. The lawmaker had alleged that 80 Members of Parliament of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) received bribe from an unnamed businessman to back down on their demand for the resignation of Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta.
According to Mr Kissi Agyebeng, proceeding with investigations will not yield the desired results.
“…the Special Prosecutor directs the closure of the investigation in respect of allegations that a well-known and wealthy businessman attempted to bribe a section of the majority caucus of Parliament. The Special Prosecutor determines that the institution of criminal proceedings, at this time, against the OSP’s identified suspect would serve no useful purpose,” a report dated December 28 sighted by 3News.com indicated.
The SP stated that, “The investigation may be re-opened should the circumstances and further facts so dictate.”
“This report is founded on regulation 31(1)(g) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018 (L.I. 2374), which mandates the OSP to publish detected acts of corruption through the receipt, collection, or collation of reports, documents, materials, complaints, allegations, information and intelligence,” he wrote.
It would be recalled that the MP for Asante Akim North, Andy Appiah-Kubi alleged that a wealthy businessman attempted to bribe he and 79 of his colleague NPP MPs for them to stop their quest to have Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta removed from office.
By: Laud Nartey
