Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng has claimed that some calls to abolish or weaken the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) are motivated by personal dislike for the institution’s leadership.

Kissi Agyebeng said some of the attacks against the OSP were not based on evidence of misconduct by him or other senior officials but rather on a preference for different people to occupy leadership positions at the institution.

Speaking at a press conference, he said such an approach was harmful to the development of public institutions.

“On another score, I state with extreme reluctance that some of the attacks intended at abolishing the OSP or dimming its light stem from personal dislike against the occupant of the seat of the Special Prosecutor and the operational directors,” he said.

Mr Agyebeng said the evidence available to the institution had not shown that he or the other officials targeted by such criticism had engaged in “obnoxious or untoward conduct”.

He argued that disagreements with individual office holders should not become a basis for seeking to dismantle an institution established by law to fight corruption.

“On the contrary, it is a case of simply a preference for other persons to the operational directors and me to drive down a public institution set up to fight corruption,” he said.

According to him, calling for the abolition of the OSP because certain individuals are disliked amounts to prioritising personalities over institutions.

He described such an approach as “the antithesis of development”.

His comments form part of a broader defence of the OSP against what he described as sustained attacks on the institution and attempts to limit its powers.

He maintained that while the OSP was not above criticism and had acknowledged making mistakes, such shortcomings should not be used to justify efforts to weaken its statutory mandate.