Principal State Attorneys Also Have Discretionary Powers

From what I have learned during the past couple of days, there have been effected procedural changes that enable Principal State Attorneys to take certain discretionary decisions, such as that involving the aborted Delta 8 Trial, without referring to the Attorney-General’s Office in Accra. And so it comes as quite a surprise to hear Mr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the Information Minister, accuse the Asante Regional Principal State Attorney of professional misconduct in not referring the case of the Delta 8 to Ms. Gloria Akuffo, once she arrived at the conclusion that the prosecution’s side lacked sufficient evidence to carry on with the case (See “Prosecutor Didn’t Consult AG Before Dropping Delta Force Charges – Government” Citifmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 5/17/17).

Indeed, I am beginning to lose confidence in the ability of Mr. Abdul-Hamid to effectively handle the affairs of the Information Ministry. I also know that prior to him assuming his current cabinet portfolio, Mr. Abdul-Hamid was a lecturer in the Department of Religions at the University of Cape Coast. So, perhaps, he would be more suited to the portfolio of Culture Affairs Minister. I would also like to see him organize different kinds of expertise-oriented desks at the Information Ministry to make the latter more functionally effective. For instance, rather than having to personally put himself in the sort of awkward situation in which he recently found himself vis-à-vis the Delta 8 Conundrum, Mr. Abdul-Hamid could have readily asked personnel from the Legal Desk at the Information Ministry to speak to the Delta 8 issue, as well as other closely related matters.

I also don’t know that having the Attorney-General second-guess her Asante Regional Principal State Attorney in an open-and-shut case, such as the Delta 8 Cause Célèbre, for lack of sufficient evidence, unless the intention here is to bizarrely get the Principal State Attorney and the Asante Regional Police Command to manufacture forensically sustainable evidence and convict at all costs, is a progressive course of action. At any rate, whose interests are being served in this obvious bid of having the Delta 8 criminal suspects railroaded in the dubious name of “high public interest”? In sum, the key operatives of the Akufo-Addo Administration may need to be extremely careful not to unwisely play themselves into the hands of their more politically experienced National Democratic Congress’ opponents.

If they do, they would be ruing that moment for a very long time to come. That the NDC operatives have historically not endeared themselves to either the individual members of the judiciary or the institution of the judiciary itself, ought to be deeply etched into the mnemonic faculties of the vanguard operatives of the Akufo-Addo Administration. Make no mistake, the Attorney-General can be deeply committed to the rule of law and order without blatantly seeming to be so amateurishly undermining the discretionary powers and/or integrity of her principal representatives in the regions.

It is also clear that in terms of technology upgrade, our judicial system continues to be well behind the times and the trade. We are told, for instance, that the Kumasi Magistrate’s Courtroom, in which the commotion or pandemonium involving the Delta 8 operatives occurred, has no activity-monitoring cameras installed, which may very well have significantly contributed to the woeful inability of police investigators to effectively track down the criminal suspects allegedly involved in the judicial custodial breach. And so perhaps this critical aspect of our judicial praxis requires the sedulous attention, in terms of immediate technological upgrade, by the Akufo-Addo Administration. This is the one area where begging our more advanced Western donors for assistance would not totally out of order.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
May 21, 2017
E-mail: [email protected]