Ghana’s lawmakers have approved by unanimous decision a new special prosecutor tasked to fight corruption in the country.
The new special prosecutor is an Accra-based legal practitioner, Kissi Agyebeng who will replace the previous appointee, Martin Amidu who resigned last year.
The 43-year-old is expected to be sworn-in by Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo this month to begin his role.
The Ghana News Agency reported that “Mr Agyebeng has been a lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law since October 2006, teaching and researching into Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Corporate Law, and Legal Research and Writing.”
“He is also an Associate at the African Centre for Cyber Law and Cyber Crime Prevention, and the National Moot Court Coordinator for the Commonwealth Moot Court Competition on International Criminal Justice.”
Corruption is a major problem in most African countries with many of them struggling to tame its tide.
Ghana is not an exception and continues to struggle to deal with the menace, a task the new special prosecutor is expected to execute.
Agyebeng said during his vetting in parliament that he is “not naive to assume that I am coming to stop corruption. There’s no way I can stop corruption. God himself will not acclaim to that but, I am going to make corruption very costly to engage in.”
He announced his intention to “institute what I call ‘Pressure for Progress’ and in this quest, there will be a systemic review of all public sector institutions and the development of integrity plans.”
But some have raised concerns about the independence of the office since it is still under the country’s attorney general.
The hope though is that the special prosecutor office would help reduce the workload on investigative agencies to enhance their effectiveness.
The previous prosecutor, Mr. Amidu said in his resignation letter that he wasn’t given that freedom and independence to operate.
Source: Africafeeds.com
