A former Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, has criticised the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) following the arrest of private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu.
Speaking on TV3 on December 3, 2025, Mike Oquaye said the Special Prosecutor had no grounds to invite Kpebu to answer questions regarding claims he had made about the OSP.
Martin Kpebu recounts reason for his detention by OSP
He stated that the OSP’s mandate is to investigate corruption cases, not to pursue people simply because they criticise the office or its leader.
He added that the OSP should rather have sued Kpebu or referred him to another agency if Kpebu had committed a crime through his claims and allegations against him.
“… In the first place, the Special Prosecutor did not even have any business inviting Mr Kpebu there. If Mr Kpebu says you are corrupt, you can sue him or you can refer him to another agency if there is a crime to look into that because your business is to investigate corruption.
“Is Mr Kpebu is being charged with corruption? He’s definitely not being charged with corruption, therefore, we must not just mix things up because I want peace in this country,” he said.
Oquaye further went on to bemoan the country’s lack of well-functioning and strong institutions.
According to him, the creation of more institutions causes confusion and misuse of power, suggesting that the country should instead strengthen existing bodies like the Attorney General’s Department.
“… People are abusing power everywhere. We don’t strengthen our institutions; we just proliferate institutions. Instead of making the Attorney General’s Department very strong to prosecute, we create something else. Those who lived at the time of this well-known DPP, JK Darko will know how strong the Attorney General’s Department has been before,” he said.
He added, “And I believe that this is because we are not creating strong institutions, we keep on just proliferating and adding and adding upon then we get confused in the process. I think what is happening now is very unfortunate and all well-meaning Ghanaians must really condemn it.”
Arrest and Detention of Martin Kpebu: What we know so far
The former Speaker’s comments follow Kpebu’s arrest and detention for nearly five hours by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) after a confrontation with a military officer during an invitation to assist the OSP with evidence related to allegations he had earlier made against the institution.
