Amidu’s ‘perceptions’ scary for Special Prosecutor job - George Loh

A former Member of Parliament for North Dayi, George Loh, has described as “scary” the disclosure by Martin Amidu during his vetting that his scathing accusations of the erstwhile NDC administration as a looter government were based on perception.

Responding to questions from members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, Mr. Amidu divulged among other things that his claims that former President John Mahama installed moles in the current government to undermine its efforts to fight corruption in the country was based on perception.

“I was stating a perception,” he said when quizzed on his article titled: “The Missing Link” in the Woyome case.

In the said article, Mr. Amidu alleged “moles planted in high positions by the Mahama administration, within the ministries ahead of the 2016 election, are sabotaging efforts by the Akufo-Addo administration to fight corruption, especially regarding the GHC51.2 million judgment debt paid to businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, by the Mills/Mahama administration.”

“No reasonable person expects President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to personally investigate and deal with suspects in fulfillment of his promises of fighting corruption and dealing with past corruption which substantially contributed to earning him the Presidency,” he added.

Reacting to Mr. Amidu’s comments on Morning Starr Friday, Mr. Loh who is also a private legal practitioner said: “I got scared when he talked about perception the way he did.”

“Anybody who works with perception and has discretion you are in trouble because if he doesn’t like your face he comes with soldiers and police one day lockout your house and bank account and says you are under investigation because I have a certain perception that you are corrupt,” he added.

Mr. Amidu was unanimously approved by the Appointments Committee of Parliament after almost nine hours of questioning. He is expected to be approved by the plenary of the House and then subsequently sworn in by the President for the important position of Special Prosecutor.

But it is feared that a suit challenging his eligibility as Special Prosecutor nominee due to his age could scuttle his appointment, despite receiving unanimous approval from the Committee.

Approval to counter public perception

A Minority member of the Appointments Committee Mahama Ayariga said that their decision to approve the nomination of Mr. Amidu was to counter public perception that the NDC is afraid of him.

“We overwhelmingly, as a minority, had taken a decision that we will pass him any day because people out there perceive that we were afraid of him and we want to show that we are not afraid of nobody,” the Bawku Central MP told Accra-based Citi FM Wednesday.