Award-winning journalist and the Integrity Personality Award winner, 2021, Manasseh Azure Awuni has called out the Nana Akufo Addo-led government for its seeming interest in dealing with corruption in the country. Mr. Azure Awuni, speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show explained that although government set up the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) ostensibly to deal with issues of corruption in the country, political interference as alleged by the former Special Prosecutor (SP) Martin Ben Kaiser Amidu, and the lack of financial commitment, as posited by the current SP Kissi Agyebeng, clearly indicate government’s deliberate inaction to tackle corruption in the country.
He mentioned that if successive governments had allowed the Attorney General to function as mandated by the Constitution, there would have been no need to set up a parallel office to investigate and prosecute corruption cases in the country.
“The Office was necessitated by the fact that the Attorney-General, we are told, is often controlled by the governing party, the president and whoever forms part of the government. We have the Attorney-General, a politician, so when they have to deal with their own, it becomes difficult”.
“I said it would not be necessary under a good leader, because the President, who appoints the Attorney-General, if he is committed to fighting corruption without looking at who is involved, he or she can empower the Attorney-General to act even if it is against his own party people. In that case, the issue about the Attorney-General being a part of the ruling party may not even count,” he explained.
He added that when government male attempts to fight corruption their attention is squarely on members of the opposition rather than members of their party; a situation he said calls for worry.
Investigative Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni and Detective CID at the Kaneshie Police Station were named the Ghana Integrity personalities of the year 2021 at the second edition of the Ghana Integrity Initiative Award held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra
The Award was held on the occasion of the United Nations’ Anti-Corruption Day.
Forty persons were nominated or submitted entries while fifteen made it to the next stage.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
