Old Tafo legislator Vincent Ekow Assafuah has launched a scathing attack on the Attorney-General’s office, accusing it of obstructing transparency regarding controversial case discontinuations.
The MP’s months-long quest for internal prosecution memos allegedly recommending the dropping of high-profile cases has hit a wall, with officials claiming the documents are classified – despite evidence they were previously accessible.
Assafuah’s pursuit began with a February 12 Right to Information request seeking memos purportedly advising the former AG to abandon sensitive prosecutions. After statutory deadlines passed without response, the matter escalated to the RTI Commission, which ruled the documents classified on April 14. This justification collapsed when the MP highlighted Deputy AG-designate Justice Srem Sai’s February 27 parliamentary vetting admission of having seen the memos while still a private citizen.
“The AG’s office is trapped in its own web of deception,” Assafuah stated, presenting three damning possibilities: either the classification claim is fraudulent, the deputy AG nominee improperly accessed sensitive documents, or the memos never existed and were invented to justify political interference. His allegations strike at the heart of Ghana’s judicial transparency crisis, coming amid growing scrutiny of abandoned corruption cases and perceived selective justice.
The controversy exposes critical flaws in Ghana’s information access regime. Legal analysts note the RTI Commission’s classification ruling contradicts its own precedent in similar cases, while constitutional experts highlight the dangerous precedent of shielding prosecutorial decisions from parliamentary oversight. With the AG’s office yet to respond, the standoff threatens to reignite debates about political influence over Ghana’s justice system as the nation approaches another election cycle.