Godfred Yeboah Dame, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has raised concerns about the Office of the Speaker of Parliament’s engagement with private lawyers in legal cases.
The AG raised the concerns on Wednesday, October 30, during the Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin’s application that sought to overturn a ruling that blocked him from declaring four parliamentary seats vacant.
In his argument, Godfred Dame referenced a 2022 Public Procurement Authority (PPA) letter that denied Bagbin approval to engage his personal lawyer, Sory@Law for cases involving the Office of the Speaker of Parliament.
The December 12, 2022 letter addressed to the Clerk to Parliamentary Service, Cyril Kwabena Oteng-Nsiah, the PPA Board noted that, “since the Attorney General is the Principal Legal Advisor, the Board is of the considered opinion that Parliamentary Service should continue to use the services of the AG in all legal matters.”
Addressing the Supreme Court’s panel, AG Dame argued that the Speaker’s Office should not have been in the suit in the first place.
“The first defendant [the Speaker] is not even a proper party to the proceedings before the court, and his absence will not impede the court’s ability to proceed with the hearing of the matter.”
“It is even improper for the first defendant to be joined in this action; the proper defendant should solely be the Attorney General.”
Below is PPA’s letter.