PPP explains position on Special Prosecutor’s Office

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PPP explains position on Special Prosecutor’s Office ^Featured

Politics

08 September 2017

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has stated that the New Patriotic Party (NPP’s) proposal to set up an Independent Prosecutor is the same as that of the PPP’s proposal to set up the Special Prosecutor’s Office.

Reacting to comments made by the NPP Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso in the Ashanti Region, Mr Kennedy Kwasi Kankam, on Peace FM on September 4, 2017 that the PPPs policy position on the two offices were the same, the PPP stated that what it promised and what the NPP was planning were not analogous in any way.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Communications Director of the PPP, Paa Kow Ackon, and released to the press in Accra.

PPPs position

The statement said many Ghanaians were aware that the PPP had linked its existence to leading a crusade for the implementation of critical reforms such as the election of metropolitan and municipal district chief executives (MMDCEs), free but compulsory education from kindergarten (KG) to senior high school (SHS), the separation of the Office of the Attorney-General (A-G) from that of the Minister of Justice, the separation of the Executive from the Judiciary, among others reforms.

It said the PPP was happy about the vivid and concrete expressions by the NPP to implement aspects of the PPP's own policy visions and acknowledged that as a good start.

“However, we are not sure how the proposed Special Prosecutor will be working under instructions of the A-G and remain independent,’’ the statement said, adding that the PPP’s proposal was for a detached and separate Office of the Independent Prosecutor.

“We believe that the A-G who performs the role of Chief Legal Advisor to the government, Minister of State and guardian of the public interest, is undoubtedly a constitutional oddity,” the statement said.

Complete separation

The statement further indicated that it was the view of the PPP to have a complete separation so that the Minister of Justice would become the President’s lawyer while the A-G’s Office would become the people’s lawyer.

‘’An independent prosecutor is what we need to effectively deal with corruption; and definitely not a special prosecutor who will be working as an appendage under instructions of an Attorney-General,’’ the statement read.

‘’For anyone seriously interested in tackling corruption, the intent and application of the above argument should be straightforward enough!” it concluded.