Timing of OSP investigations into alleged vote-buying in NPP wrong - Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Former Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has criticised the Office of the Special Prosecutor over how it is investigating claims of vote buying in the New Patriotic Party’s recent primaries.

In an interview on JoyNews’ AM Show on February 16, 2026, he raised concerns about the timing of the Special Prosecutor's announcement on its investigations into alleged vote-buying involving both the NPP and the NDC.

Responding to questions about the probe, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said he was uneasy about what he believes is an effort to 'equalise' the matter.

“I don’t like this kind of equalisation. The SP should be a man; he should be principled,” he said.

He said that if the Office of the Special Prosecutor had concerns about what happened during the election, it should have acted immediately.

“We had this election a week ago. So, if anything untoward happened, you should have immediately come out to say that these are some of the observations I have come up with and want to investigate it,” he stated.

According to him, waiting until allegations circulate in relation to another political party before initiating investigations into both creates the wrong impression.

“You wait until it happens in the NDC and you say, okay, I’m going to hold NDC responsible and at the same time I’m going to do this. What is that?

OSP launches probe into NPP, NDC primaries over vote-buying allegations

“Are we in a regime of equalisation? Or do you think that if you act only on the NDC, questions may come that we heard this also went on in the NPP, so why aren’t you acting?” he added.

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also clarified that he was not against investigations where wrongdoing is suspected.

“I’m not saying that if anything went wrong, it shouldn’t be investigated. It may be wrong,” he said.

However, he maintained that the Special Prosecutor must show clear independence and decisiveness.

“It (OSP) should show greater independence and determination. Rather than wait for something to happen and then say before I dive into this, I’m told this also happened, so I want to do the two together, it’s not the best,” he added.

SO/AE

Cabinet instructs COCOBOD to begin repayment to all affected cocoa farmers