Supreme Court must act or anti-corruption framework at risk - Lawyer

Ghanaian legal practitioner Amanda Akuokor Clinton has raised an urgent alarm over what she describes as the systematic dismantling of Ghana's anti-corruption institutions through a pattern of High Court rulings.

She warned that the Supreme Court may be the last line of defence before the damage becomes irreversible.

In a write-up on her social media page, sighted by GhanaWeb, Clinton argued that two recent courtroom developments, taken together, reveal how fragile the country’s specialised anti-corruption architecture has become.

“As a legal practitioner, I sounded the alarm with surgical precision in mid-April. In response to the April 15 High Court ruling in the OSP matter, which declared ongoing OSP prosecutions void without express Attorney-General authorisation and ordered their transfer to the AG’s Department, I warned: ‘If independence is stripped, effectiveness is compromised.’ A single High Court had effectively neutralised statutory mandates enacted by Parliament, a step that belongs before the Supreme Court alone,” she wrote.

The second development followed on April 29, 2026, when Justice Francis Achibonga expunged an EOCO lawyer from the prosecution team in the high-profile NAFCO/Buffer Stock case against former CEO Hanan Abdul-Wahab Aludiba and four others.

Former Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame, appearing as defence counsel, successfully objected that the lawyer had no valid authorisation to prosecute. EOCO has since clarified that its lawyers were only supporting lead State Attorneys and that the current Attorney-General is working to issue fresh authorisations, but Clinton argued the incident still exposed a dangerous vulnerability.

“Whether the gap arises from individual-name fiats, administrative oversight, or deliberate challenge, the result is the same, delay, disruption, and the slow erosion of specialised anti-corruption capacity,” she wrote.

The consequences, she noted, are already visible, with the NPA extortion and money-laundering case against Mustapha Abdul-Hamid and others adjourned to May 26 to await clarity on the OSP’s mandate.

At the heart of the legal dispute is Article 88 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, which vests prosecutorial authority in the Attorney-General.

“Parliament created these bodies precisely to operationalise that authority through arm’s-length institutions capable of pursuing politically exposed persons without the delays or perceived conflicts inherent in the AG’s Department. The emerging judicial approach, however, converts that delegation into a case-by-case executive permission requirement that must be proven on demand,” she noted.

Clinton pointed to history as a cautionary note, citing cases in South Africa and Nigeria.

“History offers no comfort. South Africa’s Scorpions were dismantled in 2009 amid political pressure; the result was weakened enforcement and entrenched state capture. Nigeria’s EFCC has repeatedly shown how executive alignment determines enforcement priorities. Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission has seen its effectiveness ebb and flow with governmental transitions. In Brazil, the Lava Jato operation fractured under sustained claims of politicisation.

“Once specialised independence is subordinated to routine executive oversight or reactive authorisation requirements, restoring credibility and operational momentum is extraordinarily difficult,” she wrote.

She noted that the Supreme Court’s forthcoming ruling would determine not merely a procedural question, but whether Ghana’s anti-corruption framework functions as a genuine check on executive power or as an extension of it.

“The first decisive steps downward have already been taken. The question is whether the apex court will arrest the descent before the damage becomes irreversible,” she warned.

Watch the video below:

@lawyerclintonafrica SHOCKING: Ghana’s anti-corruption agencies are being dismantled right now in court 😱 Supreme Court will decide their fate. Legal breakdown you need to hear. What do you think? 👇 Amanda Akuokor Clinton Esq. | Law & Power" #GhanaLaw #OSP #EOCO #Corruption #SupremeCourt ♬ original sound - Lawyer Clinton