General News of Saturday, 2 December 2023

Source: peacefmonline.com

'Tread cautiously' - NPP MP warns Special Prosecutor on his tirade against the judiciary

Member of Parliament(MP) for the Kwadaso Constituency, Dr Kingsley Nyarko Member of Parliament(MP) for the Kwadaso Constituency, Dr Kingsley Nyarko

The Member of Parliament(MP) for the Kwadaso Constituency, Dr Kingsley Nyarko, has warned Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, to tread cautiously in response to his recent outburst against the judiciary.

The Special Prosecutor, in a press conference on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, expressed his frustrations about how Judges are treating his corruption cases.

He complained bitterly about his cases being dismissed in court, describing this trend as troubling.

He said; "We do not force-feed cases, we do not force-feed our prosecutions. It is our belief that it is not a matter of us going beyond our mandate but rather a case of hasty dismissiveness and lack of regard because if you take the four cases I tabled out over a period of time spanning from July 2022 to Monday, there is a troubling trend."

He cautioned that this would gravely affect Ghana's economy noting that corruption erodes public trust in government and disturbs the development of the nation.

“Indeed I have had several calls from well-meaning lawyers admonishing me that they have heard talk that our friends who have been elevated to the bench and presiding over cases in court do not take very kindly to criticism, especially of the public calling out variety as we do. And that if the office persists in the media releases, the judges will gang up against the office and throw out all our cases.

“It will be absolutely of no good should it be the case that the OSP is set against the judiciary or that the judiciary is against the OSP. That will surely spell disastrous consequences for this republic, especially in the fight against corruption to the glee of corrupt persons, he intimated during the press conference.

He added, “I do not intend to sound as though I’m predicting doom, but we are facing doom. With this development, it will not be long [before] a suspected murderer or armed robber will boldly walk to court with the unthinkable prayer that the court should injunct law enforcement agencies from investigating him.”

But the Kwadaso MP is of the view that Kissi Agyebeng is taking the wrong approach to addressing his concerns.

To him, the Special Prosecutor's behaviour "indicts the Judiciary," hence warning him to desist from taking such a path.

"I plead with you, Kissi, to tread cautiously. If you are not careful, at the end of the day, people will see that you are doing nothing...We must all be very careful about that," he admonished during Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" morning show.