Demand fair prosecution of crimes — Amidu

A former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Martin Amidu, has called on Ghanaians to speak out for the fair and impartial prosecution of crimes, particularly those involving corruption and graft committed by associates of governing political parties.
“We the people must stop this ‘create, loot and share’ syndrome that has reared its ugly head in Ghanaian politics, in spite of the record of probity, accountability and transparency left behind by the PNDC and NDC 1 and 2 governments,” he said.

In his latest ‘epistle’ issued in Accra last Sunday, Mr Amidu said the diversionary propaganda of persecuting non-government associates, while invidiously protecting hard-core associates suspected of crime, must be stopped.

He noted that in spite of several promises and commitments by the government to fight graft and corruption, those promises had become vague, with no certainty of achieving them.

“In the governments of the PNDC, NDC 1 and 2, these commitments were taken as articles of faith and abided by like gospel truths. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the manner the Woyome case was electively commenced and is being prosecuted with the suppression of the Attorney-General’s report while highlighting the unauthorised letter and attachment of Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, the very person who signed the settlement agreement on behalf of the government for the money to be paid to Woyome,” he said.

Citizen Vigilante

Also described as Citizen Vigilante, Mr Amidu stated that the courts of law gave judgements based only on the evidence that the parties presented to them, pointing out that the courts of justice dealt with legal truth and not factual truth.

“When the prosecution suppresses material evidence, the court will give judgement in accordance with the available evidence. The Court of Appeal will also hear an appeal based only on the legal evidence on the record of appeal and nothing else. It does not matter what the factual truth is; the courts, as human institutions, cannot divine it!” he said.

Agbesi Woyome

Mr Amidu said he had expressed his apprehensions over the sincerity of the government to fairly and impartially prosecute the bundle of criminal offences committed by Woyome, his foreign collaborators, Ghanaian public servants, and political ministerial collaborators in creating, looting and sharing gargantuan millions of Ghanaian cedis, US dollars and euros.

He recalled that as the Attorney-General, he had pleaded in his application for leave to amend the writ and statement of claim at the High Court, ‘fraud and fraudulent misrepresentation’ involving Woyome and his foreign collaborators and co-conspirators, with the intention of joining them in the suit.

He said he was also in discussions to prosecute all three suspects for various offences before the High Court when he was relieved of his post, among other things, for daring to exercise the independent powers imposed on him under the Constitution to prosecute.

“For the doubting Thomases, there is a living member of the former Council of State who was sent to me by the President on January 18, 2012 with express instructions to demand my withdrawal of my press statement of January 11, 2012 alleging the gargantuan crimes against the people of Ghana in which some ministers were implicated.

“I refused. The next day, as expected, I was relieved of my appointment, apparently to kill the case, with the deceitful propaganda that my successor would prosecute the cases,” he stated.

Killing Cases

According to Mr Amidu, his fears of attempts to “kill the case” were heightened when the acting Chief Director of the Ministry of Justice was called as a prosecution witness, in spite of the availability of attorneys who handled the docket on the settlements and mediations.

Daily Graphic/Ghana