This comes less than an hour after the over three-hour vetting by members of the Committee on Thursday, July 22, 2021.
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Kissi Agyebeng : 5 takeaways from Special Prosecutor's vetting
Parliament’s Appointments Committee has recommended for approval the nomination of Kissi Agyebeng as Special Prosecutor, by consensus.
SP Kissi Agyebeng at Appointment Committee's vetting
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Mr. Agyebeng is said to have provided satisfactory answers to members of the Appointments Committee at his vetting.
Kissi Agyebeng was called to the Ghana Bar in October 2003 and holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Ghana, as well as, Master of Laws (LLM) degrees from Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, Canada, and Cornell Law School, USA.
He has, since 2006, been teaching Criminal Law at the University of Ghana, whilst engaging in private law practice.
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Below are some of the highlights from his vetting:
- I can’t stop corruption in Ghana, not even God – Special Prosecutor
Kissi Agyebeng, during his vetting said his role is not to stop corruption since that will be humanly impossible.
However, he said he is going to make it “costly” for anyone to engage in the act.
“I am not naive to assume that I’m coming to stop corruption in Ghana. God himself cannot acclaim that but I will make it very costly to engage in,” the 43-year-old lawyer said.
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- I will guard my independence jealously
The Special Prosecutor also told parliament’s Appointments Committee during his vetting that he intends to guard his independence jealously in carrying out his duties in terms of investigating, preventing, prosecuting corruption cases and managing seized, frozen or confiscated properties.
In his view, the relevance of the OSP cannot be overemphasised and, thus, warned:
“…The day we scrap this office is the day we say goodbye to our fight against corruption”.
- I’m not too young to be special prosecutor
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The Special Prosecutor’s age was one of the issues on the burner during his vetting, but the 43-year-old said he qualifies for the position and is ready to discharge his duties without fear or favour.
Mr. Agyebeng said that his extensive knowledge of the law and experience of 15 years as a law lecturer at the University of Ghana Law Faculty and the quality of personnel that understudied him, prove he is capable of being the special prosecutor.
“In terms of experience as I stated earlier, I was called to the bar some 18 years ago, I qualify to sit on the Supreme Court of Ghana. Indeed, I am three years past the qualification for the Supreme Court.
“... I qualify to be the President of the Republic. I am age mates with the President of the French Republic and I am a year older than the minister of justice and attorney general. We were mates at the University of Ghana. There is no question about his age. Why then throw issues about my age?” he said.
- I prefer to wear my own shoes as Amidu’s successor
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He also stated during his vetting that he prefers to be his own man rather than fill the shoes of his predecessor Mr Martin Amidu.
“I prefer to wear my own shoes in the sense that I am my own man and I am coming with my own experiences and professional training conscience and learning of the law as my strategy”.
- I’m no Agyapa surrogate
Finally, one of the biggest subjects during the vetting was “Agyapa”. But the Special Prosecutor nominee said he knew nothing about the controversial ‘Agyapa’ as alleged by his predecessor Martin Amidu.
He opined that he is not a surrogate of the botched Agyapa deal. “I wasn’t involved in the deal. I was nowhere near it. Indeed, until it started coming up, I didn’t even know what it was.''
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According to him, “whoever says I am a surrogate of a law firm or implicates me in the Agyapa transaction clearly does not know me because if you know me, you wouldn’t make such allegations”.
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