A System is corrupt when it is strictly profit-driven not driven to serve the best interest of its people. – Suzy Kassem
Was it a play (or “concert” as the Ghanaians would say? Was it a drama? Perhaps so. Dramatis personae! The Prosecutor at the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP), affectionately called Kissi Bleoobi – Accra Academy student, who had first class in law, and winner of Bentsi-Enchill Award for Best Graduating Law Student in 2001, at Legon…
Then to Ghana School of Law, where in 2003, he again won the E.N. Sowah Memorial Award for Best Student in Family Law; LLM, Corporate Law International Law, and lecturer in Criminal Law at age 47 lawyer for controversial Anas Aremeyaw Anas, AND Martin Kpebu, the 46-year-old man whose pursuits cut across business, oil and gas law.
Martin Kpebu is on record (and often quoted) in lawyers’ applications for bail (See: Martin Kpebu v Attorney-General (2)), leading to the amendment of S 96(7) of Act 30 (The Criminal Procedure Code Amendment Act, 2002) (Act 633) and further amended by Section 41(1)(a) to the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2008 (Act 762).
A Ghanaian lawyer haranguing for a bail is likely to quote Martin Kpebu when a judge drags his feet over bail for contravening Articles 15(2) and 19(2)(c) of the Constitution 1992 — on this basis it is null and void and of no effect. (Note: Article 19(2) A person charged with a criminal offence shall (c) be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty or has pleaded guilty”.
Rehearsal (comedy) Martin Kpebu launches a scathing attack on Joy News:’…
The story remains that Kissi Agyebeng sat on his hands and allowed Ofori Atta to run out of this country, when Ofori Atta had five cases pending before it…
In the past, Kissi Agyebeng had worked for Ofori Atta and also Kissi Agyebeng used to work for Gabby Otchere-Darko who is related to Ofori-Atta… we are connecting the dots. Kissi Agyebeng was hand-picked because he’s close to Gabby Otchere-Darko, Godfred Dame and Akufo-Addo. He was hand-picked so that he would do their bidding. He wasn’t picked as an independent person.
Martin Amidu was the one who was picked as an independent person and see how Martin Amidu stung Akufo-Addo as mother serpent of corruption. So, Akufo-Addo said “no, henceforth I’ll pick somebody who will play ball with me.”
Stage One: OSP invites Martin Kpebu, Terse language:
“The Office of Special Prosecutor invites Martin Kpebu and TV3 over allegations of corruption” and that the OSP looked away while Ken Ofori-Atta left the country”. Martin Kpebu had criticized OSP’s action on Ken Ofori-Atta and the SML contract as insufficient and belated; Martin Kpebu charged: ‘OSP is fooling the public”
Stage Two: A female officer at OSP…When I was walking into the premises of the office, I noticed there was an interview being conducted by some guy from the media with Mr. Kpebu… Right at the gate, the men let him (Martin) know that any time he comes to the office, once he parks, he’s supposed to go straight to do his business… Kpebu’s response was that he can do what he wants; they can’t tell him what to do… it’s escalating to insults. There was the F-word being used. There were other ones…”
Stage 3: There were exchanges of words; security at the OSP sought to show Martin “where power lies.” So, Martin gets handcuffed! Who will be happy with this? Did Kissi guess that a trap had been set and he fell into it?
In a country which had been turned into a den of thieves (without any apology to anyone), what do you expect an “Ankwanoma” to do? To run a public office and go home penniless, like some of us? People, including your own relations, would simply say “You are not smart”. So, you are urged to steal, steal and steal, and you have to go the distance with the stealers; they call it corruption: ingrained corruption.
We said (Lawyer Marshall and other classmates in Kumasi) said it: Kissi is too young for this office; he appeared not to have the clout or “thick’’ skin of Gyeke-Darko, the DPP who taught us Criminal Law or D.F. Annang, also DPP. And if the office was an “easy” one, why would Martin Amidu, the first holder resign? The corrupt ones, nay, the thieves as Jantuah would call them, would have links to the Presidency; Nana Addo, Asante Bediatuo, Gabby Otchere-Darko and their appendages… and these would not give you space to do your work satisfactorily plan interference.
The good old Professor Mike Oquaye steps in? Late in the night of Martin’s arrest (we were monitoring closely), Prof. Mike Oquaye was livid on TV3: “…the Special Prosecutor did not even have any business inviting Mr. Kpebu there. If Mr. Kpebu says you are corrupt, you can sue him or you can refer him to another agency if there is a crime to look into that because your business is to investigate corruption… Is Mr. Kpebu…being charged with corruption? “…we must not just mix things up because we want peace in this country… People are abusing power everywhere. We don’t strengthen our institutions, we just proliferate institutions. Instead of making the Attorney General’s Department very strong to prosecute, we create something else… we get confused in the process… all well-meaning Ghanaians must really condemn it (Martin Kpebu’s arrest and asking for landed property in his name as guarantee for bail).”
Kissi has had a chequered life on the OSP seat.
Kennedy Agyapong, the NPP Presidential hopeful has not spared him: “an ugly species with faulty set of teeth, village boy, stupid, a beast, a lawyer who defends criminals (should lawyers regard alleged criminals as ‘pariahs’?)”
Stage 4: In Parliament on 4th December, the Chief Whip, Dafeamkpor, was upbeat about the scrapping of the OSP — or is it only the head (Kissi)? Mahama Ayariga’s “firm decision” added his voice, “for emphasis”, the office has had no achievement of that office… reconsider to abolish it… why do we establish an entity out of the functions of the A-G and resource them more than the A-G and even after doing that, it has still not delivered.” The Speaker, Alban Bagbin, added his voice: “…we cannot continue to allocate that huge sum to the same office when we are not getting the results.”
The Speaker had on the floor of Parliament challenged “the constitutional basis” for the establishment of the office…
Should the OSP (the office, not the persona of Kissi) remain; who will be appointed to head this “haunted” place? As for our friend Kissi, he has “seen it all.” No one can advise him to resign or not – with all the brouhaha, the insults, the assassination attempts…
So, NIB, EOCO, the abolished Serious Fraud Office, the Attorney General’s Office (Criminal & Prosecutions) were all resourced (less than OSP?).
OSP (the office) may have on its platform the key achievements; prevented losses of GH¢6.5b; concluded high profile investigations (Airbus, Cecilia Dapaah); securing initial convictions; suspended illicit transactions worth over GH₵6.42b; ongoing investigations into significant cases including SML/ARA contracts, appropriation of state lands.
What about the PDS deal? What about Dr Mustapha Hamid’s NPA deal? Walahi, this country must be saved! Then many filling stations, many estate houses? Were these signs of saving the country?.
What about the $65m National Cathedral which was initially supposed to be privately funded? Where is Ofori-Atta?
Rwanda on our mind: order, discipline, respect — a country devastated by civil war, now a “model” for us to learn from!
