LI on Special Prosecutor Office finally laid

Government has finally laid before parliament the Legislative Instrument (LI) on the office of the Special Prosecutor.

The Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul laid the document on behalf of the Attorney General, Monday, Joy News’ Parliamentary correspondent Joseph Opoku Gakpo reported.

The document has since been referred to the Subsidiary Legislative Committee for deliberations and it will take 21 working days for the instrument to mature into law.

The LI is one of the ingredients needed by the Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu in order to carry out his statutory obligations.

The LI will define the scope of operations for the office and what will be legally acceptable by the office to do in prosecuting its agenda.

The laying of the bill comes at a time when government promised, in the 2019 budget statement, to provide ¢180million to the office for its activities.

The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu has been lamenting what he said was increasing neglect by the government.

The Office was set up by the Akufo-Addo led administration as part of a bipartisan approach to prosecuting corruption issues in the country.

In January 2018, Martin Amidu, a member of the opposition NDC was appointed by president Akufo-Addo as the first Special Prosecutor, an appointment that triggered a huge controversy.

He was appointed for his vigilant role in fighting corruption after he singularly won the controversial Woyome case at the Supreme Court as a private citizen after he was hounded out of office in 2012 as Attorney General.

Members of the NDC who have fallen out with Amidu saw his appointment by the president as a ploy to use him to get back at persons within the NDC he had issues with.

Some members of the NPP were not happy with his appointment either.

Almost 10 months after he was appointed, very little has been heard of the office except for some lamentations by Amidu over the lack of support from government to carry out his duties.

With the laying of the LI in parliament, the office of the Special Prosecutor may soon have a firm legal ground on which to operate.