Braimah: Weakening OSP threatens anti-corruption efforts
A prominent civil society voice has stepped into the growing legal storm surrounding Ghana’s anti-corruption office, cautioning that the country’s hard-won gains in the fight against graft could unravel if the institutional footing of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) continues to be contested and chipped away.
Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), sounded the alarm on Thursday morning during an appearance on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, saying the swirling uncertainty over the OSP’s mandate sends troubling signals about Ghana’s commitment to accountability, and risks shaking public confidence in the very institutions designed to deliver it.
“Any attempt, direct or indirect, to weaken the effectiveness of the OSP is worrying for the fight against corruption in this country,” he stated.
His intervention comes a day after an Accra High Court delivered a ruling that has thrown several active OSP prosecutions into legal limbo. Justice John Eugene Nyadu Nyante, presiding over a quo warranto application brought by private citizen Peter Achibold Hyde, held that while the OSP retains the authority to investigate corruption-related offences, it cannot independently initiate prosecutions, a power the court said belongs exclusively to the Attorney-General under Article 88 of the 1992 Constitution. Legal observers have since suggested the decision could effectively freeze several ongoing cases until the courts provide further direction.
The OSP has not taken the ruling lying down. The office has stood firmly behind its founding legislation, arguing that the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act explicitly confers on it both investigative and prosecutorial authority over corruption-related matters, and has already signalled its intention to challenge the High Court’s decision at a higher forum.
For Braimah, the legal back-and-forth is symptomatic of something more troubling, a pattern of institutional pressure on an office whose independence is fundamental to its purpose. He urged stakeholders not to underestimate the cumulative effect of such developments on public trust and on Ghana’s broader governance reputation.
Source: myjoyonline.com
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