Section 72: Director of Public Prosecutions

72. Director of Public Prosecutions (1) There shall be a Director of Public Prosecutions whose office shall be a public office and who shall be appointed by the Judicial and Legal Service Commission. (2) No person shall be qualified to hold or act in the office of Director or Public Prosecutions unless he is qualified for appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court. (3) The Director of Public Prosecutions shall have power in any case in which he considers it desirable so to do to— (a) institute and undertake criminal proceedings before any Court of law (not being a Court established by a disciplinary law); (b) take over and continue any such criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by any other person or authority; and (c) discontinue at any stage before judgment is delivered any such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by himself or any other person or authority. (4) The powers of the Director of Public Prosecutions under subsection (3) may be exercised by him in person or through other persons acting in accordance with his general or specific instructions. (5) The powers conferred upon the Director of Public Prosecutions by subsection (3) (b) and (c) shall be vested in him to the exclusion of any other person or authority: Provided that, where any other person or authority has instituted criminal proceedings, nothing in this subsection shall prevent the withdrawal of those proceedings by or at the instance of that person or authority at any stage before the person against whom the proceedings have been instituted has been charged before the Court. (6) In the exercise of the powers conferred upon him by this section, the Director of Public Prosecutions shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority. (7) For the purposes of this section, any appeal from any determination in any criminal proceedings before any Court, or any case stated or question of law reserved for the purposes of any such proceedings to any other Court, shall be deemed to be part of those proceedings: Provided that the power conferred on the Director of Public Prosecutions by subsection (3) (c) shall not be exercised in relation to any appeal by a person convicted in any criminal proceedings or to any case stated or question of law reserved except at the instance of such a person.