Seasoned journalist Kwesi Pratt has described the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) as nothing more than a political showpiece created to deceive Ghanaians into believing in a renewed fight against corruption.
He argued that the office was set up without any substantial legal foundation to back its authority.
“The establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor was just a political gimmick with no substantial consequences for legal practice in Ghana,” he stated on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana.
Pratt said the move was not a genuine reform but a calculated public relations exercise by both major political parties.
“The NDC ignored our counsel because they didn’t want to appear against anti-corruption measures, even though they knew this was a useless gimmick. The NPP, on the other hand, wanted to create the impression that it was taking the fight against corruption to another level,” he said.
Pratt emphasized that the OSP’s creation did not amend any portion of Article 88 of Ghana’s Constitution, which firmly vests the power to initiate and conduct criminal prosecutions in the Attorney General.
Quoting directly, he read, “The Attorney General shall be responsible for the initiation and conduct of all prosecutions of criminal offenses.”
He stressed that the OSP operates merely at the discretion of the Attorney General and therefore lacks constitutional autonomy.
“No other authority in Ghana, including the OSP, has a constitutional responsibility for prosecuting criminal cases other than the Attorney General,” Pratt maintained. “So this OSP contraption is just a joke, a joke created for political purposes.”
