Government withdraws Special Prosecutor Bill

The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, has withdrawn the Special Prosecutor Bill from Parliament.
He also withdrew the Zongo Development Fund Bill. The two Bills were withdrawn without explanation.

The Parliamentary, Constitutional and Legal Committee of Parliament last week rejected a request by the government for the office of the Special Prosecutor’s Bill to be passed under a certificate of urgency.
The committee, therefore, recommended that the bill should be taken through all the normal processes.

The minority in parliament had earlier raised issues of constitutional breaches, saying that the bill had not been gazetted when it was first laid on Tuesday.

The Office of a Special Prosecutor was a major campaign promise of Nana Akufo-Addo while he was the opposition candidate in the December 2016 elections.

While many have said that the office would be a duplication of roles, because there are agencies such as the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and the Economic and Organised Crime Office that are responsible for investigating corruption, others have praised its implementation and called on the president to make it truly independent of political interference.