Ghana’s founding Special Prosecutor and former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, has declared the High Court ruling on the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) legally defective, arguing that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the case and that its orders go well beyond what the law permits.
In an opinion piece dated April 22, 2026, Amidu analysed the judgment delivered on April 15 by Justice John Eugene Nyante Nyadu of the High Court, Accra, which arose from a quo warranto application filed by private citizen Peter Archibold Hyde challenging the OSP’s prosecutorial powers. Amidu’s central argument is that the application never properly established the legal grounds required for the court to assume jurisdiction, rendering the entire ruling invalid from the start.
He argued that without the originating application disclosing a justifiable capacity and a direct personal interest on the part of the applicant, the court was without the power to proceed. He noted that the applicant never claimed the OSP had exercised powers against him personally, a basic requirement he said must be met before a quo warranto application can be entertained.
Amidu also criticised the OSP’s own legal team for failing to raise a preliminary objection at the outset, saying that a timely challenge to the applicant’s legal standing could have ended the matter before it developed into a full ruling. He suggested the applicant would have been required to withdraw and refile with a properly constituted application.
On the substance of the orders issued by the court, Amidu argued that the judge went well beyond what a quo warranto proceeding allows. He contended that the directive for the Attorney General (AG) to take over all ongoing OSP prosecutions and the declaration that past OSP convictions are void both fell outside the court’s competence in such proceedings. He also maintained that the High Court has no authority to interpret constitutional provisions, that power being reserved exclusively for the Supreme Court.
Amidu stated that while he does not condone what he described as the OSP’s pattern of conduct that has drawn public criticism, the proper avenue remains the pending Supreme Court case of Adamtey v the Attorney General, which directly addresses the constitutionality of the OSP under Act 959.
