Full Text: Do not defame me in the propaganda to nominate a new Special Prosecutor – Martin Amidu

The former Special Prosecutor, Mr Martin Amidu has taken a swipe at Asaase for allegedly circulating some propaganda about him in order to aid the appointment of their surrogate as the Special Prosecutor.

GhanaPlus.com came across his statement and brings you the full statement

Anybody deeply knowledgeable about the Agyapa Royalties Transaction Corruption Risk  Assessment report which resulted in my eventual resignation as the first Special Prosecutor  knows that one of the beneficiaries of the Agyapa Royalties Transaction is Africa Legal  Associates whose contract to participate in the transaction was found to be contrary to the  Public Procurement Act and tainted by bid rigging. Until 20^th March 2020 Agyapa Royalties  Limited was incorporated as Asaase Royalties Limited on 5^th November 2019 in Jersey, the  United Kingdom. Anybody who cares to know, knows that the alter ego of Africa Legal  Associates is a cousin of the President who also established Asaase Radio which began  official transmission on 14^th June 2020. The Agyapa Royalties Transaction records show the  role the President’s cousin who established Africa Legal Associates, and Asaase Radio  played with White & Case LLP, of London, one of the foreign law firms in the suspected  corruption transaction.

It must, therefore, be worrying to any patriotic Ghanaian not afraid of the culture of silence to  see Asaase Radio undertaking political propaganda beginning on 25^th April 2021 to 26^th April  2021 to prepare the minds of the Ghanaian and international public to accept the surrogate of

the alter ego of the Asaase Radio station and Africa Legal Associates as the Special  Prosecutor as mandated under section 4(1) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2018  (Act 959). In the attempt of persons implicated in the Agyapa Royalties Transaction  corruption assessment report to pressurize the President to appoint their surrogate as the  Special Prosecutor to safeguard their interests, the online reportage of Asaase Radio resorted  to direct fabrications, lies, and omissions against me in its narration of the reasons for my  resignation.

The post on the Asaase Radio online website by one Wilberforce Asare states in respect of  my resignation that: “His [Martin Amidu] reasons for resigning were roundly criticized by  civil society actors, who maintained that the law offered him enough protection to stay in  office and perform his duties without interference and that there was no clear evidence of any  executive interference that should have triggered his resignation.” Asaase Radio and its alter  ego did not have the courage to point out one civil society actor who expressed the  fabrication it was putting out to the public to aid the appointment of its new surrogate and  preferred “Agyapa” Special Prosecutor.

Asaase Radio also shamefully pretended not to have read my rejoinder giving further and  better particulars on my resignation dated 26^th November 2020 to the Secretary to the  President’s supposed reply to my resignation letter which we now know by experience that  the President might not have instructed to be written at all. My functions or my judgment and  decision as the Special Prosecutor to resign my office under Act 959 was not subject to the  supervision or judgment of civil society actors let alone those of them who secretly attend  Government policy making meetings as I had occasion to pointed out in writing previously.

In exercise of brazen impunity, Asaase Radio reported online a matter which never featured in my resignation for pure political propaganda to facilitate and enhance the status of its  surrogate “Agyapa” Special Prosecutor even before the President could indicate his  acceptance of the nominee and forward a request to Parliament. What has the nomination of a  Special Prosecutor by the Attorney General which was awaiting the pleasure of the President

got to do with the reportage by Asaase Radio that: “Mr. Amidu, a veteran member of the  opposition National Democratic Congress, who rose to become vice presidential candidate  and Attorney General, fell out with the Mills administration over what he described as a  matter of principle over alleged executive connivance in dubious multi-million dollar  judgment debt.”? Didn’t the President know these facts when he invited me and convinced  me to accept to be the first Special Prosecutor? Was the President expecting me to close my  eyes to corruption in his Government when he personally sought my acceptance and  transmitted my nomination to Parliament? Did I, as a public officer, continue to be a member  of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) upon my nomination and subsequent  appointment as the Special Prosecutor? Was my supposed disaffection with NDC the reason  for the President referring the alleged Airbus bribery case to me for investigation?

Asaase Radio appears to have been so bent on pressurizing the President to announce their  preferred choice as the Special Prosecutor (the Agyapa Special Prosecutor) that it forgot that  the nomination letter by the Attorney-General was addressed only to the President. How then  did the nomination letter of a new Special Prosecutor come into the public domain to make  the rounds in the press? Asaase Radio should also have told the Ghanaian and international  public that its surrogate and nominee Special Prosecutor in the published letter is a personal  friend and classmate of the Attorney General, and the owner of Asaase Radio all of whom  attended the University of Ghana’s Faculty of Law, and Ghana Law School. The  independence of the Special Prosecutor from the direction or control of any person or  authority in the performance of the functions of his office are the operative statutory words for the nomination of an impartial Special Prosecutor! Not a word with an “ism”.

Section 13 particularly subsections (3) and (4) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act,  2018 (Act 959) spells out the procedure for the nomination and appointment of a qualified  Special Prosecutor. In the scheme of the 1992 Constitution and Act 959 even though the  nomination of the Special Prosecutor is entrusted to the Attorney-General subject to the  approval of Parliament, the person who accepts the nomination and submits it to Parliament  for consideration and approval is the President.

Consequently, the announcement of my nomination as the first Special Prosecutor was made  by the President on 11^th January 2018 at a press conference at the Jubilee House and followed  up with a request to Parliament to consider the nomination for approval. The Attorney General at the time never arrogated to herself the authority to force the hands of the President  to accept my nomination by making her nomination public before the President had the  opportunity to make same public. The Attorney-General at the time followed the dictates of  Ministerial and Cabinet responsibility in allowing the Cabinet and the President to consider  my nomination before it was made public. And those of us who had ears inside the Cabinet  knew the debate that went on before the President concluded the Cabinet debate in accepting  and announcing my nomination as the first Special Prosecutor on 11^th January 2018.

Asaase Radio and the nominator of the proposed new Special Prosecutor know or ought to  have known the extent of the involvement of their surrogate as a lawyer for suspects in  pending suspected corruption cases in which the Government showed an undue interest in the  Office of the Special Prosecutor which I await to see how independently and impartially  those cases will be handled to conclusion should the President submit the name of the nominee to Parliament, he is approved, and then appointed. I read Sir Sam Jonah’s expose on

impunity, corruption, and other “isms” militating against the fight against corruption in  Government and the economy before reading the series of propaganda publications by Asaase  Radio on its preferred and proposed new Special Prosecutor. No impartial observer can  disagree with Sir Sam Jonah’s reflections except beneficiaries of the system who loot from  the public purse. The fight against corruption in Ghana has been and is still in State Capture.  Mark my words!

By all means let anybody root for his or her preferred Special Prosecutor as an insurance  against prosecution for corruption in Government but leave me out of the propaganda. I am  honouring an undertaking by my silence in not commenting on public affairs. Stop tempting  me to speak by the defaming propaganda against me. It will not be in anyone’s interest.

Martin A. B. K. Amidu

29^th April 2021

Source: GhanaPlus.com