Martin Amidu was named as the Special Prosecutor by the President on Thursday January 11, 2018.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wmpQ08mJjJhuOJPAegcPZCvh9QfJVurb”]He is expected to be approved by Parliament in the coming days.

Though many have since commended the President’s nomination, with some describing it as a masterstroke, Mr. Tamakloe believes Mr. Amidu will not bring anything new to the table, given that he failed to prosecute many corruption-related cases when he served as Attorney General under former President, John Evans Atta Mills.

“What we cannot also take away is the fact that the conduct of the person appointed is there for all to see. You cannot dismiss those concerns. With the greatest respect, he was the Attorney General from 1992 to 2000 until he became running mate to Prof. Mills. Maybe. Can you tell me the number of corruption cases that he prosecuted? Having become the Attorney General to Prof. Mills, we all do know the number of criminal cases that he prosecuted so where is this business?”

‘Celebrate Amidu’s appointment’

Mr. Tamakloe’s comment comes despite a call by the Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey for the NDC to celebrate the nomination of a member of their party, Martin Amidu, as the country’s first Special Prosecutor.

According to him, the NDC should be happy because President Akufo-Addo has found the kind of quality needed to fight corruption in the country within the opposition party, describing it as a good sign.

“…It is good for the party to rather celebrate that they have a person that they made, that they shaped. He stood against them on principle and it’s good that their opponent who is in power now has seen that quality and wants to put it to greater use of the country. I think that is commendable,” he added.

About Special Prosecutor office

President Akufo-Addo signed into law, the Bill setting up the Special Prosecutor office after it was approved by Parliament in November 2017.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor marks the fulfilment of a major campaign promise of Nana Akufo-Addo in the run-up to the 2016 elections aimed at fighting corruption.

But members of the opposition NDC had complained that the office cannot be independent if the Special Prosecutor was going to be a loyalist of the NPP.

The President in announcing Amidu, said he received the nomination from the Attorney General Gloria Akuffo, and has accepted the nominee, whose name will be forwarded to Parliament for approval when the House reconvenes from recess.

“The Attorney General is by a letter dated to me Thursday 11th January 2018 addressed to me exercised her power of nomination and submitted to me for my acceptance the name of the proposed special prosecutor. I have accepted the Attorney General’s nomination and will, in turn, submit for Parliament’s approval when it reconvenes on 23rd of January 2018 for its first meeting of this New Year the name of Martin Alamisi Benz Kaiser Amidu to be the first Special Prosecutor under the law,” he said.

The President noted that, Mr. Amidu has the requisite integrity and independence of character to occupy such challenging office.

“I have done so because I am fully convinced that Mr. Martin Amidu, a prominent legal personality who held the high office of the Attorney General of the Republic in the government of the late President John Evans Attah Mills has the requisite integrity, competence, courage and independence of character to discharge effectively the responsibilities of this office.”

More About Martin Amidu

Martin A. B. K. Amidu was the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice from January 2011 till January 2012 under the late President John Evans Atta-Mills.

Amidu, a member of the NDC, served as the Deputy Attorney-General for about the last four years of the Provisional National Defence Council military government.

After civilian rule was established in the Fourth Republic in January 1993, he continued to serve in the government of Jerry Rawlings as Deputy Attorney-General. This he did for both terms lasting eight years until January 2001.

In the December 2000 presidential elections, he stood as the running mate of John Atta Mills. They both however lost to President John Kufuor that year.

In January 2010, following a cabinet reshuffle, President Mills replaced Cletus Avoka with Martin Amidu as the Minister for Interior. As Amidu is a Builsa, some people raised questions as to his neutrality in dealing with the Bawku conflict. He, however, went successfully through vetting by the Parliament of Ghana and has since assumed his post.

Following the second major cabinet reshuffle by President Mills, Amidu became the Attorney general and Minister for Justice of Ghana.

Removal from Office

Martin Amidu was relieved of his post on Thursday January 19, 2012, by President John Evans Atta Mills under circumstances described by aides as ‘his misconduct’ at a meeting chaired by the president at the Osu Castle on January 18, 2012.

He made allegations relating to alleged financial impropriety on the part of another cabinet minister, allegations he was asked by the president to substantiate.

Martin Amidu, the former Attorney General, single-handedly challenged the legality of the payments after being relieved off his post at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court in 2014 ordered Mr. Woyome to pay back the money as Supreme Court judges unanimously granted the Attorney-General clearance to execute the court’s judgment, ordering Mr. Woyome to refund the cash to the state.

Following the delays in retrieving the money, Mr. Amidu in 2016, filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking to examine Alfred Woyome, on how he would pay back the money, after the Attorney General’s office under the Mahama Administration, led by the former Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, discontinued a similar application.

In February 2017 however, Mr. Amidu withdrew his suit seeking an oral examination, explaining that the change of government under the New Patriotic Party under the President, Nana Addo Dankwah Akuffo Addo and his Attorney General, Miss Gloria Akuffo’s assurance to retrieve all judgment debts wrongfully paid to individuals Mr. Woyome in response prayed the Supreme Court to stay proceedings on the oral examination since he had filed for a review on the case.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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In his view, most of Ghana’s systems are put together in such a way that almost every policy that is implemented is bound to fail.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Mr. Ofosu-Dortey said, the government must reorient itself to adopt more sustainable and effective ways of doing things to ensure that their implemented policies achieve the desired results.

While bemoaning the poor state of the transport sector in the country, he chided private and public enterprises for using the purchase of private cars as an incentive, noting that such a practice has accounted for the collapse of the public and intra-city bus operations in Accra.

“All that we get from time to time is policy. These policies don’t work because the attitude of the people themselves is designed to make things fail. We have designed our systems to make it fail.”

“For the transport sector for instance, instead of implementing bus lanes, you encourage people to buy cars. Three cars parked together will occupy the same space as a bus, whereas the bus will take 80 people, the cars will take 15 people and the average occupancy of a car in Accra as far back as 2003 was 2.1, in other words, were are wasting the space.”

“If you go through the entire transport sector, you will see that both the private formalized and public sectors, are seriously encouraging the purchase of a car as an incentive for people. So the system is designed to fail. There is no correlation between the objective of our people as a nation and the actions we take,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Town and Country Planner, Nii Teiko Tagoe, has urged the state to invest heavily in an effective public transport system to help address the worsening problem of vehicular traffic especially on major streets in the capital.

Listen to the full interview below:

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Lawyer indicated that, he might sue the AG if she fails to make details on the bond available.

[contextly_sidebar id=”TCGJkM4jp1mW8dCroMGy7AT8VvOObXFU”]“If the information I have is in the public domain, then there will be no need for me to go to court to compel the AG, but if I don’t have those details I think the best place to go will be the court,” he said.

The Lawyer had earlier explained that, the information he was seeking for was aimed at addressing several concerns voiced on the bond issuance.

Speaking on the Point Blank segment of Eyewitness News, Mr. Adawudu justified his request , saying “I am am exercising a constitutional mandate which says that I have a right to information.”

Making a case for his request , Mr . Adawudu further stated that, Ghanaians deserve to know how much will be paid as interest on the said bond.

What the lawyer requested for

In a letter addressed to the Attorney General and copied to the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Adawudu, who also enclosed a processing fee of GHc 1,000, said the information he was seeking for was aimed at addressing several concerns voiced on the matter.

“I am exercising my legal and constitutional right and the Attorney General is the principal legal adviser to the government. If you look at the Right to Information Bill, it is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General who is responsible if information is wanted,” he said.

“If you look at the information I am seeking, it is a very a extensive question, and I ask that the data should also be added.”

Mr. Adawudu noted that, most of the information on the bond issue was circulating in the media, but could not necessarily be taken to be the truth, despite the “rebuttable presumption that it is authentic.”

“The information that we are getting cannot just be said to be the authentic information, that is why I am asking for the authentic information from the government.”

Background

Concerns were raised about the transparency of the $2.25 billion bond, with some suggesting that, the apparent secrecy over the deal fueled the allegations of conflict of interest against the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta.

Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Finance, Ken Thompson, remarked to Citi News that in times past, when bonds have been issued, there have been road shows, announcements or visits to Parliament “but this seems to have happened rather quickly.

The Minority in its conflict of interest allegations, said a non-executive director on the board of Investment Firm, Franklin Templeton, who purchased 95 percent of the $2.25 billion bond, is also the Chairman of the Enterprise Group, which has links to the Attorney-General and the Finance Minister.

The Minority eventually called for a full-scale parliamentary probe into the bond issue.

The Ashanti Regional Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Yaw Brogya Genfi, has also petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the $ 2.25 billion bond.

But the Finance Minister through the AG’s department, has asked CHRAJ to dismiss the petition because the claims are completely false.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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Mr Augustine Obuor noted that when Asiedu was arrested he told the Police that he was 18 years old but the Police disagreed.

[contextly_sidebar id=”N3xaUYPRALCTYwGNkpvoRApRfMjAEtSh”]According to Mr Obuor,the Police are still keeping a report which indicated that that the accused is a minor and so there would be no need to appear in court.

However counsel said if the report indicated otherwise, it would give Asiedu the opportunity to prepare for his defence during the committal proceeding and the trial.

“If the accused person is 18 years he is still a young offender and needs to enjoy certain rights under the Juvenile Justice Act. The prosecution is bound to provide documents per the procedure of the trial,” he said.

Superintendent of Police Francis Baah said Asiedu did not tell the Police that he was 18 years during his arrest.

He said the Police had done wide range of investigations and their outcome indicates that Asiedu was not 18 years old.

According to the prosecution the Police had gone to Nigeria where he attended school, the hospital where Asiedu was born, looked through his weighing card and talked to his father and other relations.

He said prosecution did not have to serve the defence with a piece meal adding as at the time Asiedu was “writing his statement the age he gave us was 19”.

Mr Baah said the medical report confirmed that Asiedu was above 18 year old.

The court adjourned the matter to October 19 for continuation of submissions on Asiedu’s Medical report.

Asiedu  and Vincent Bosso are  being held for murder of the Late MP, which occurred on February 9, at his Shaishie residence.

Bosso has been charged with abetment of crime.

The facts as presented by Mr Baah are that on February 8, at about 2340 hours the deceased came home in his private vehicle driven by his driver Samuel Berko Sarkodie.

Prosecution said the driver having brought his master home handed over the keys to him and left for his residence at Kasoa while the deceased then retired to his bedroom upstairs.

He said at about 0100 hrs, Asiedu and Bosso, both armed, went to the house of the deceased and Asiedu after entering the house picked up a ladder and climbed to the porch of the top floor and entered the bedroom of the deceased through the window while the deceased was sleeping.

“Asiedu began to search the room and the deceased woke up and held him. Asiedu resisted and stabbed the deceased on the right chest above the breast. The deceased held the knife and Asiedu pulled the knife through the deceased hands creating a deep cut in his palm, “prosecution said.

Prosecution said the deceased who was bleeding profusely fell by his bed helpless and Asiedu stabbed him several times on the right chest and neck.

Realizing that the deceased was almost dead, Asiedu left him and took away his three iphones.

The prosecutor said the struggle that ensued between the deceased drew the attention of the security man who alerted other security men within the vicinity

Mr Baah said Bosso realising danger took to his heels leaving Asiedu behind.

Prosecution said Police investigations led to the arrest of accused persons who stated that their aim of going to the deceased house was to steal.

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Source: GNA

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