The Special Prosecutor nominee, Kissi Agyebeng, lacks the fear factor in his new role, a private legal practitioner Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo has said.
Addo said Agyebeng must work hard to create that aura of fear around his office in a bid to make corruption unattractive to public officials.
Speaking on Asaase Radio’s weekend news analysis show, The Forum with sit-in host, Benjamin Offei-Addo, the lawyer said: “The kind of legacy that Martin Amidu had left, that position, whoever is going to be appointed must be somebody that must be feared, he doesn’t have that fear factor.”
“He is an excellent academic, that is why I was happy, he didn’t create any unrealistic expectations… as much as you don’t want to personalise the office, that office must be personalised, it must evoke fear.”
“The man [Amidu] made the office what the President, I think anticipated and contemplated; I think he is gone back to a reset where we are now going for a typical administrator, that is one of the criticisms I had against the vetting,” Addo said.
Lack of specifics
Touching on the vetting of the SP, Addo said most of the answers Agyebeng gave lack specifics.
“I am not saying Martin Amidu was a perfect person but he was a necessary evil. The kind of work you are doing, you must have no friends,” Addo noted.
I’m not too young to be special prosecutor
Meanwhile, Agyebeng has rubbished claims that he is too young to occupy the post of special prosecutor.
His comment follows various reports suggesting he is too young to hold such an office, considering the age of his predecessor, Martin Amidu.
Justifying his appointment before the appointments committee of Parliament on Thursday (22 July), Agyebeng said that his extensive knowledge of the law and experience over 15 years as a law lecturer at the University of Ghana Law Faculty, as well as the quality of personnel who understudied him, prove he is capable of being the special prosecutor.
“In terms of experience, as I stated earlier, I was called to the Bar some 18 years ago. I qualify to sit on the Supreme Court of Ghana,” he said. “Indeed, I am three years past the qualification for the Supreme Court.
“I turned 43 on 2 July. I qualify to be the president of the republic. I am age mates with the president of the French republic and I am a year older than the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
“We were mates at the University of Ghana. There is no question about his age. Why then throw issues about my age?”
Agyebeng added: “To anchor on that, I have had a front role – although I have not been a prosecutor, properly so called, I have had a front role to landmark prosecution in this country.
“When Tiger Eye PI and Anas Aremeyaw Anas come up with their investigative pieces, I am the one who supervised the collation of evidence for presentation to the attorney general. And I have been doing this for quite a while now, and without me, the Attorney General’s Office would be poorer in terms of those prosecutions.”
New journey
If approved, Agyebeng, a 43-year-old legal practitioner who is the managing partner at Cromwell Gray LLP, will become the second person to occupy the post of special prosecutor since the law establishing the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Act 959) came into force in 2017.
Martin Amidu, the country’s first special prosecutor, resigned from office on 16 November 2020, 21 days to the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Fred Dzakpata
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