PPP will decouple Attorney General’s office from Justice Ministry
The Founder of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has stated categorically that a PPP-led government will ensure the separation of the Attorney-General’s office from that of the Minister of Justice.
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That, he explained, would enhance the effort of the state to prosecute alleged corrupt people.
Presenting the PPP policy summary at the party’s Second National Convention at the Ghana National Association of Teachers’ (GNAT) Hall in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis in the Western Region last Saturday, Dr Nduom declared “Ghana needed incorruptible leaders.”
Explaining the issue of the separation further, he said there would be two separate judiciary offices, a Chief State Prosecutor (CSP), nominated by the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) on the advice of the Judicial Council, while Parliament would then approve who the Attorney General of the Republic would be.
According to Dr Nduom, the CSP would be responsible for the initiation and conduct of all prosecutions of all criminal offences and that no one would institute any prosecutions in the name of the Republic without the authority of the CSP.
Among other key functions, the CSP shall discharge other duties of legal nature as may be referred or assigned to him by
Parliament, the Supreme Court or imposed on him by the 1992 Constitution or any other law.
Dr Nduom further explained that for the Minister of Justice (MJ) position, the person would be a minister of state and the principal legal advisor to the government and would discharge such other duties of legal nature as might be referred or assigned to him or her by the President or imposed on that office by the constitution or any other law, among other responsibilities.
Election of MMDCEs
He again indicated that under a PPP government, no Member of Parliament (MP) would be made a minister and gave an assurance that metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) in his government would be elected by the people just as MPs were elected by the same people to represent them in the national assembly.
The PPP founder said his government would solve the health problems facing the country by restoring the state’s responsibility of a clean and healthy environment across Ghana, and that the PPP would, with a sense of urgency, devise lasting solutions to make Ghana a malaria and cholera-free state.
Education policy
He also indicated that the position of the party on education would still be a free, compulsory and universal education for all children of school-age in Ghana from kindergarten to senior high school.
‘‘It is the only political party which sees education as the necessary foundation and instrument that can sufficiently deal with the evils of squalor, hopelessness, poverty, disease and joblessness,’’ he stressed.
The National Chairman of the PPP, Nii Allotey Brew Hammond, in his welcoming address, said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had not worked for the country in the last 23 years.
‘‘They have worked for themselves, their friends and their families. Give PPP a chance to work for you to implement our PPP Platform for change. We must work on our legislative, constitutional and electoral reforms that must rely on a national identification database if we are to prevent foreigners and minors from getting onto the electoral register,’’ Nii Hammond said.
About 2, 000 delegates attended the convention which was on the theme: ‘‘Strategise to form Government in 2017.’’