Attorney-General, Ministry of Justice should be decoupled – NPP Communicator advocates

A member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communication Team, Enoch Afoakwa, has waded in the calls for the offices of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice to be separated with distinct mandates.

He said this would allow for sanctity in the judicial process and the protection of the rights and liberties of citizens.

Enoch Amoakwa made the assertion when he appeared on the New Day on TV3 on Friday. His comments follow calls for the trial judge in the ongoing ambulance purchase trial, Justice Efia Serwah Asare-Botwey, to have ordered Attorney-General Godfred Dame to recuse himself from the case rather than advise.

He argued that an “order” by the court for the A-G to recuse himself from the case he is conducting would have amounted to a discontinuation of the case because the A-G, Mr Dame, has the sole mandate under the 1992 Constitution to conduct criminal prosecution for and on behalf of the state.

Furthermore, Afoakwa questioned how the trial could proceed if the A-G was ordered to stay away.

“These are two separate, distinct entities. The minister of justice supervises the judicial arm of government in terms of policy direction and the like, promotion of human rights and all there is and a whole lot of things.

‘The mandate of the Attorney-General is to conduct criminal prosecutions. And he is a principal legal advisor to the state and those things. These are specific duties fused together…so these are separate, distinct duties.

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• Ambulance trial: Ordering Godfred Dame to recuse himself would’ve amounted to discontinuation of case – Enoch Afoakwa

“I believe that it should be decoupled so that we have a Ministry of Justice that is strictly as the behest of the citizens not in criminal prosecution because once you are being prosecuted criminally it means that you’re fighting against the state and who is leading the state to fight against you? It is the Attorney-General and this same person is the Minister of Justice who is also there to ensure that you rights are being protected.

“So, it should be clearly decoupled so that we have sanctity,” he stated.

A-G ignores judge’s advice to recuse himself

Meanwhile, Attorney-General Godfred Dame Yeboah has maintained that he will continue to prosecute the case for the state against Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson (first accused) and businessman Richard Jakpa (the third accused).

The two are facing trial for allegedly causing a €2.37 million financial loss to the state over the purchase of “unfit” ambulances for the country.

Also, Mr Dame stressed that the judge herself, after her ruling, clarified that she had not given any such order at all but only advice, stating that “I am conducting the matter, I am still conducting the trial.”

“The most important point today is that all the applications filed by the applicants have been dismissed in their entirety,” Dame told journalists in front of the High Court building in Accra.

The court dismissed all applications filed by the accused persons to, amongst other reliefs, stay the proceedings or cause for a mistrial hearing based on the alleged misconduct of the A-G.

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