Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has offered additional context on the events that led to the detention of private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu at the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on December 3.
Mr. Kpebu had appeared before the OSP after being invited to assist with investigations into corruption allegations he earlier made against Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng. He was later arrested for what officials described as obstruction of an OSP officer.
Explaining the sequence of events, Manasseh Azure said the OSP’s Director of Communications indicated that “when Martin Kpebu arrived, he went out of the OSP’s gate to speak to the media.” According to him, “the security then asked him to move away from outside the gate. He obliged and went as far as to the yam seller’s spot to conduct his interview with the media.”
Azure added that the OSP claimed that upon completing the interview and returning to the compound, Mr. Kpebu entered “alone,” after which “the security guards ‘reminded’ him that filming was not allowed at the OSP’s premises.” He noted that “that was what resulted in the verbal exchanges leading to his arrest, detention, and a bail condition that his lawyers said required a landed property in his name and a surety.”
Before his arrest, Kpebu had openly challenged the setup of the investigative panel constituted to probe his allegations. “They kept making me appear before subordinates. Subordinates can’t investigate their boss. It’s incompetence,” he said, insisting on an “independently constituted” committee.
His lawyers confirmed that the legal practitioner was detained and later granted bail under conditions they described as unusually stringent.
