Legal practitioner and former President of the Ghana Bar Association, Samuel Awuku Okudzeto, has downplayed the rationale behind the creation of the Office of the Special Prosecution (OSP) a special-purpose vehicle to deal only with corruption.
According to him, such bodies, in other jurisdictions, are only appointed to tackle specific one-off problems, but not an entire institution created for the appointed individual.
In an interview on JoyNews Monday, December 8, 2025, Mr. Okudzeto explained how similar offices have functioned elsewhere without necessarily making them institutions.
“You see, in other places where you have this special prosecutor, it means that there is a specific problem that has arisen, and you want that person to go there and solve that problem. You don’t create the whole institution for it, as we have done; if you like, you can go and search and ask where and where do we have that kind of institution?
“You see, the Prime Minister of England, you know what his position was before? You know how he got the knighthood? He was the director of public prosecution. Justice D. F. Anang, who became the Speaker of Parliament, was also Director of Public Prosecutions.”
He added his voice to the calls for the Office to be scrapped. He says the alarming levels of corruption in the country necessitated the creation of the Office, it has failed to achieve its purpose and should be dissolved. Okudzeto wants the Office of the Attorney-General to be rather resourced to handle prosecutions.
“That is what should have been done. But I suspect that somebody thought that corruption was too rampant in the country, and therefore, to create an institution for that purpose was a good idea. And then, of course, you appoint an individual. Don’t forget, it’s just an individual you’ve appointed.
“Then you are now trying to create an institution around that individual. What is the background of that? That’s the question I ask. What is his background of that individual? If I am going to try and select one of the top legal luminaries and say that I’m giving him that just a different thing.”
Rather than building institutions on individuals, the renowned lawyer believes it should be other way round.
He warned that building institutions around untested individuals is risky. “I’m just saying that when you don’t train people to do a job, you think that creating institutions, particularly when they think it’s just an individual, it’s dangerous… It’s very, very dangerous.”
