Minority weighs court action over Independent Prosecutor's Office

The Minority in Parliament may head to the Supreme Court to challenge plans by Nana Akufo-Addo to set up the Independent Prosecutor’s Office.

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, told Accra-based Citi FM that his side is convinced without a doubt that proposed corruption fighting portfolio breaches the Constitution.

The proposed Independent Prosecutor‘s Office, according to the President, will be one of the ways that his administration will deal specifically with corruption in the public sector.

However, Mr Iddrisu says that an office that is not stipulated by the Constitution will conflict with the provisions of Article 88 of the Constitution which vests the functions of the proposed Independent Prosecutor’s Office in the Attorney-General.

The functions, he said “belongs to the executive chapter of the constitution which is entrenched, therefore you cannot be seeking to review that through an Act of Parliament”

“I am certain that Article 88 is entrenched, and not that which can be reviewed simply through a process of an Act of Parliament,” he said.

Article 88 of the Constitution states the following:

(1) There shall be an Attorney-General of Ghana who shall be a Minister of State and the principal legal adviser to the Government;

(2) The Attorney-General shall discharge such other duties of a legal nature as may be referred or assigned to him by the President, or imposed on him by this Constitution or any other law;

(3) The Attorney-General shall be responsible for the initiation and conduct of all prosecutions of criminal offences;

(4) All offences prosecuted in the name of the Republic of Ghana shall be at the suit of the Attorney-General or any other person authorised by him in accordance with the law;

(5) The Attorney-General shall be responsible for the institution and conduct of all civil cases on behalf of the State, and all civil proceedings against the State shall be instituted against the Attorney-General as defendant;

(6) The Attorney-General shall have audience in all courts in Ghana.

Haruna Iddrisu did not give a timeline for the likely legal action.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | GN