Ace Ankomah defends OSP, says office needs time to evolve

Private legal practitioner Ace Ankomah has opposed calls for the abolition of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), insisting the institution needs time to fully develop and operate effectively.

His comments come after the Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, and some Members of Parliament proposed scrapping the OSP and empowering the Attorney-General’s Department as the sole body responsible for investigating and prosecuting corruption-related offences.

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, December 3, Mr. Ayariga questioned why the Attorney-General’s Department is under-resourced while the OSP receives significant funding, arguing that the institution has failed to deliver expected results.

Speaking with Bernard Avle on Channel One TV’s ‘The Point of View’ on Monday, December 8, Mr. Ankomah cautioned against rushing to dismantle the OSP, saying the office is still evolving.

“I don’t think it’s evolved yet. When we set up offices, we might expect them to grow and to evolve and even to make mistakes. We cannot expect a hundred percent, the eighty percent conviction rate. The lawyers know that the genre of crimes that the OSP is supposed to prosecute, often white-collar crime, is one of the most sophisticated crimes,” he said.

He added, “So a certain level of skill is required to investigate white-collar crime, which has somehow been missing from our body politic, has even been missing from our Attorney General’s Department. Look, how long did it take us to set up the OSP? It’s in recent years that he’s [Kissi Agyebeng] been given the money to set the office up. Before the office could crawl, we say kill the baby. Why are we in a hurry?”

Mr. Ankomah explained that the OSP only became fully operational after receiving adequate funding and resources, emphasizing that rather than abolishing the office, efforts should focus on strengthening its capacity to tackle corruption effectively.

The debate in Parliament has been heated, with some MPs, including the Member for Damongo, Samuel Jinapor, defending the creation of the OSP as a noble initiative and urging the Majority Caucus to stop pushing for its repeal.

Earlier, the Majority Chief Whip, Rockson Dafeamekpor, suggested inviting Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng to Parliament to explain the recent detentions of individuals assisting investigations. Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin cautioned that arrests and detentions by the OSP and other security institutions must not be politicized.