Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni says comments made by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP)’s Director of Strategy, Research and Communications, Samuel Appiah Darko, amount to an indictment of the OSP’s own handling of the AB Adjei corruption case.

Mr Darko had responded to a Facebook post on December 2, 2025, insisting that “it is a fact that since the investigative journalist published his work, the trial is only now beginning.”

But Manasseh says that the claim is false.

He explained that he had already testified during the first trial of the case and had been cross-examined from December 2022 to April 2024, so “the trial could not only be starting in December 2024.”

He stressed that the trial began in 2022.

Mr Darko further argued that “investigative journalists provide a spark. What they uncover is not, in itself, evidence. Criminal investigators must scrutinise the material, build on it, corroborate it, obtain original documents, and ultimately convert information into admissible evidence.”

He also wrote that “investigators [at the OSP] had initially relied on the journalist’s findings to proceed to court, but once the case was reviewed, it was found to be hollow and lacking strong evidentiary support.

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It was, therefore, re-investigated, with parallel financial inquiries and authentication of documents to address the deficiencies identified by the prosecutor.”

Manasseh questioned that explanation, noting that the charge sheet was signed by the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, so “one wonders why Sammy Darko said it was the investigators who proceeded to court, and the prosecutors later reviewed the case.”

He said the real indictment lies in the reading of Mr Darko’s own words. He pointed out that Mr Darko first dismissed investigative journalism as merely a “spark” but then claimed the OSP relied solely on the journalist’s work to go to court.

He said it was troubling that the OSP spent two years prosecuting the case “before realising that it was hollow.”

Manasseh also raised concerns about omissions in the OSP’s filings.

He said it was telling that the OSP claimed to rely only on the journalist’s findings but still left out the main evidence — the audio-visual documentary — when submitting material to the court.