Justice Emile
Short, a former Commissioner for the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice, has challenged the Office of the Special Prosecutor to
keep the public abreast with its work in order to reduce the huge expectations
of the citizenry since they had unrealistic expectations when the office was
established.
He explained that the Special Prosecutor, Martin
Amidu needed to establish an office, recruit staff, put in place a board and
appoint a deputy; there were a lot of things that had to be done before the
office could be functional. He has the courage to address corruption
irrespective of who is involved and I have confidence in him to deliver he
added.
“I understand that he has investigated quite a
number of cases. I know one is in court… it is true the citizenry are
impatient, want to see some high-profile prosecutions as soon as possible, I
think what the Special Prosecutor should be doing is to keep public abreast
with what he is doing, they will understand delay is excusable.
“I was pleased when Mr Amidu was appointed
Special Prosecutor because of his track record of fighting corruption which earned
him the nickname ‘Citizen Vigilante’ but has been criticised by the citizenry
for not living up to his mandate of being appointed to fight corruption in the
country,” Justice Short bemoaned.
His critics told him to stop complaining about
interference in his work and continue to serve as expected of him so long as no
one is preventing him from carrying out his work, he must stay focused and
discharge his duties professionally. They quizzed “why he is complaining all
the time, let him do his work, has the president told him to stop work? No”.
“Has a minister told Martin Amidu to stop work, no, has the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police Service told him to stop work, no, I don’t think it will be useful to be at opposite ends of the table with the police, I think it will be better for him to pick up report, look at flaws, if any, within the Special Prosecutor’s Act, move on to deal with issues, nobody has stopped him or can stop him from conducting an investigative on issues bothering on corruption that matter,” they noted. -ghanaweb.com