Host of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Paul Adom-Otchere, has called for a clear separation between the Office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Justice, saying the current structure creates unnecessary clashes within Ghana’s justice system.
Speaking on Good Morning Ghana with Moro Awudu, Adom-Otchere said he anticipated tensions between the Attorney General and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), given the overlap in their mandates.
His comments come amid growing public debate over whether the OSP should be scrapped following a recent standoff between the two offices over an attempted extradition of former Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta.
“The OSP was always going to clash with the Attorney General’s work,” Adom-Otchere said. “The best thing we can do, if we have the political will, is to decouple the Attorney General from the Ministry of Justice. Any other effort will eventually run into conflict with the Attorney General, and it will always be complicated.”
He urged civil society to take the discussion seriously, adding that Ghana needs to consider structural reforms as part of ongoing constitutional reviews.
“We have to look closely at how to separate the Minister for Justice, who is a political figure in cabinet, from the Attorney General, who is supposed to serve as the principal legal adviser to government and citizens alike,” he said. “Anyone should be able to approach the Attorney General’s office to make a complaint, regardless of who is in power.”
Adom-Otchere also suggested that the Attorney General’s budget should be managed independently of the Justice Ministry and called for clarity on whether the Attorney General’s tenure should align with that of the president.
He said the goal should be to strengthen justice delivery and insulate the process from political interference, personal vendettas and perceptions of witch-hunting.
Source: metrotvonline.com
