Kumasi based private legal practitioner Lawyer Kwame Adofo has described as worrisome the position taken by government against the principal state prosecutor in Wednesday’s Delta force prosecution.
Eight members of the vigilante group who were standing trial for aiding thirteen of their colleagues to escape from lawful custody were yesterday released with the advice of the state attorney
According to the principal state attorney, Marie Louis Simons whom Ultimate News gathers is a highly respected female lawyer; there was no evidence to incriminate the eight for their involvement in the act.
The state released a press statement indicating that the state attorney acted unilaterally breaching internal procedures.
But Lawyer Adofo contends state attorneys have every authority to decide cases on behalf of the Attorney General’s headquarters in Accra without necessarily referring to a higher authority as purported in the statement released by the ministry of information.
“They do provide advice all the time and about ninety-nine percent of their advice never reaches Accra. They don’t need to always refer to Accra before they provide advice because they have the chief state attorney in Ashanti region who signs off most of the advise and they make independent informed decisions whether or not to prosecute based on the facts and evidence before them,”.
He lamented that political heads were being seen to be interfering with the judiciary with the strong statement released by the information ministry.
Lawyer Kwame Adofo has also expressed concern that the development does not portend well for the president’s promise to establish the office of the private prosecutor as a similar decision taken by that office could suffer a comparable fate.
