Manasseh Azure Awuni, an investigative journalist and anti-corruption campaigner, has called on the judiciary to prioritise and expedite corruption cases.

He emphasised that individuals accused of public theft must no longer be allowed to exploit legal loopholes and deliberately stall trials in the hope that a change in government would lead to discontinuation of such cases.

Mr Awuni made these remarks in Ho, during the Asogli State’s Choral and Anti-corruption Day Celebration, which under the theme: “Strengthening Institutional Integrity, Transparency, and Good Governance for Sustainable National Development.”

The anti-corruption campaigner challenged the judiciary to purge itself of corruption to effectively lead the national anti-graft campaign noting that individuals who embezzle state funds were often wealthy to attempt to bribe actors across the accountability chain.

He noted that while advanced nations successfully curbed the menace through strict enforcement, Africa remained submerged by a flood of unchecked malpractice.

He urged law enforcement agencies to execute their mandates diligently and urged the state to put measures in place to make corruption highly unattractive.

He commended Togbe Afede XIV for institutionalising the anti-corruption day to raise critical awareness about the devastating impacts of graft on national development and called on traditional leaders to desist from intervening on behalf of corrupt officials.

The journalist emphasised that churches that punish young, unmarried individuals for premarital sex “must not offer front pews to known thieves simply because they pay heavy tithes.”

He noted that individuals raised in families that anchor their values on integrity and hard work were far more likely to serve the public honestly than those from households that tolerate dishonesty.

While acknowledging that no nation had entirely eradicated corruption, Mr. Awuni pointed out that many countries had successfully prevented it from reducing their citizens to misery and called on all Ghanaians to actively join the collective fight.

Togbe Afede XIV, the Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, affirmed that corruption was the greatest obstacle to Ghana’s socio-economic development.

He recounted growing up in an era where corruption was virtually unknown in the Gold Coast, lamenting that post-independence Ghana had normalized corruption to the detriment of national progress.

The Agbogbomefia, explained that the Asogli Anti-corruption Day was specifically established to generate widespread awareness of the structural damage caused by graft and reiterated his commitment to sustaining the campaign so that the country’s developmental gains were not eroded.

Mr Daniel Domelevo, Board Chairman of the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), noted that no country could achieve meaningful, long-term socio-economic progress without maintaining an eye on corruption.