Seasoned lawyer in private practice and professor of law at the University of Ghana (UoG), Kwame Gyan, has stated that by the nature of the law that established the office of the Attorney General (AG), the office holder at all material times, must operate an open-door policy to receive and talk to all Ghanaians and the same must not be abused by lawyers, ordinary citizens alike.

Speaking on Asaase Radio’s flagship programme, “Town Hall Talk” on Friday, 31 May 2024, the astute lawyer said anyone who has the privilege of engaging the Attorney General on the matter of justice must refrain from secretly recording him because it could force whoever is the Attorney General now and future holders of the office to go into hibernation and refrain from engaging with the people as required by his unique constitutional office.

In his submission, Kwame Gyan noted that “the Attorney General wears two hats technically (as Attorney General and as Minister of Justice). The Attorney General he said is therefore, in an unenviable position, because “he is the man who is the chief law enforcement officer of the Republic” and he is “the man who is leading the effort to ensure freedom, justice, probity, and accountability.”

“The Attorney General as the lawyer will agree, is the leader of the bar. I am probably twice his senior at the bar and I said, I thought the Attorney General in Legon, but he is my leader when it comes to questions at the bar. When the Attorney General is in court, he gets precedence over all the lawyers,” he added.

Mr Gyan continued, “In fact, even if he meets Sam Okudzeto in court, the Attorney General’s case will be called before Sam Okudzeto’s case is called because he is the leader of the bar. I entreat my colleagues to be circumspect with how they see things about that office. It is not for nothing that “General” is part of that office. All of us are attorneys, but he is the Attorney General so the “generalship” has to be respected.”

The learned lawyer further pointed out that the A-G has the prosecutorial discretion to decide to prosecute or not saying “to prosecute is a decision of the Attorney General. He has a lot of influence and in the cause of delivering his mandate, all manner of people go and talk to him.”

“I have talked to him severally, others have, lawyers, judges, everybody goes to him so I beg all of us, when we get any opportunity to talk to the Attorney General about cases, we should not record the Attorney General to force the Attorney General to go into hibernation. Otherwise, very so, it will be hard for people to get access to him,” Mr Gyan stated.