Audio By Carbonatix
Law lecturer and counsel for Engineers and Planners (E&P), Bobby Banson, has called for restraint and measured commentary in the ongoing legal dispute between the Office of the Attorney General (AG) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
Speaking on Newsfile on Saturday, 11th April, Mr Banson cautioned that parties involved in the matter must be mindful of their public statements, given the constitutional implications of the case.
"When you are interpenetrating laws and there are conflict, you are allowed to look at the mischief that was there that the law south to cure"
"Because the Attorney General is a political office, it is difficult for that office holder to prosecute persons that are aligned with that political heritage. That is why a lot of Ghanaians were pushing for an independent (prosecution body) so that irrespective of who is an office, you are assured that there is an independent agency with the necessary powers to undertake some prosecutions, so if that was the mischief the law makers intended to cure, to come back to say that that authority should be taken away. it means that you are putting us back in that mischief the law makers intended to cure," he explained.
"If the Attorney General disagrees with any prosecution by the OSP, the optics may not be good, especially if the person the OSP is investigation and prosecuting is aligned with the political party of the Attorney General, and so I think we should be minded of the mischief.."
His remarks come in the wake of comments by the Attorney-General suggesting that the Special Prosecutor lacks independent prosecutorial authority.
The controversy has been heightened by a constitutional writ currently before the Supreme Court of Ghana, in which the Office of the Attorney General is seeking to strike out portions of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959).
In an affidavit filed on Wednesday, 8 April 2026, in the case of Adamtey v. Attorney General, the state’s chief legal adviser argued that provisions granting the Special Prosecutor the power to initiate criminal proceedings without the express authorisation of the Attorney-General are inconsistent with the 1992 Constitution.
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