Minority Leader in Parliament and MP for Effutu, Osahen Alexander Afenyo-Markin has criticized the Attorney General’s new appetite for holding press conferences ostensibly to accuse appointees of the former government of all manner of crimes instead of resorting to the law Courts to make his case if he truly has a case to make.
According to Afenyo-Markin, the new style of the Attorney-General amounts to trial by media where all manner of unproven allegations and accusations are made against perceived political opponents with their reputations unfairly damaged in public.
The Minority Leader, in a television interview with Joy New’s Evans Mensah on Monday night said what the Attorney-General has resorted to a deliberate diversionary tactic to shift public attention from the periodic flaws on the incumbent government.
“Our contention most respectfully is that since they assumed office, when they are hot, they come and announce that they are prosecuting somebody. That is their playbook now; anytime Government is under pressure, the Attorney-General would do a press conference”, Afenyo-Markin noted.
He continued: “The Attorney General’s place is in the Court and not the media. My respected friend, the MP who is the Attorney General and his Deputy, I want them to know that their place is in the Court… they prefer to be in the media to talk about people’s guilt but it is not in their place to pronounce people guilty. The rule of law remains that go to court and make your case.”
Afenyo-Markin argued that the new style of pronouncing former appointees on government as guilty even before there is a trial, undermines he judiciary and should not be seen as updating the public on the work of the Attorney-General’s Office.
The Minority Leader explained that it is fair for the Attorney General to make a general announcement on a case being prosecuted but that announcement is not the same as going into the case itself and making all manner of criminal allegations against a person who is not there to tell his or her side of the story.
Alexander Afenyo-Markin explained his position further:
“They say they are copying from the American jurisprudence where the state comes out to update the public. Nothing stops you from updating the public. After all we are in an enterprise driven by public opinion and people want to know what you are doing. I agree but you should know the limit.
“So far I do not think they have limited themselves to giving mere updates. They go ahead to pronounce guild to the extent that the Attorney General would be arguing in the public space that he would be confiscating. When you have not even secured conviction, how do you talk about confiscation so let’s thread cautiously.
“They should go to court and give the defense the opportunity to tell his story. Go to the Courts. Don’t look for a court of continence. Don’t look for a judge of your choice, don’t manipulate the courts. I am saying they should have the automated system of assigning cases. The automated system Georgina Wood introduced, they should let it function. They know what they are doing.”
