At Martin Amidu’s age, what did he fear? – Prof Gyampo wonders

Professor Ransford Yaw Gyampo, the political science lecturer, has questioned the fears of Martin Amidu when he stated that there were threats on his life following his corruption risk assessment on the Agyapa deal.

The immediate past Special Prosecutor in his letter of resignation to the President stated: “The events of 12 November 2020 removed the only protection I had from the threats and plans directed at me for undertaking the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions anti-corruption assessment report and dictates that I resign as the Special Prosecutor immediately.”

Commenting on this, the Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, observed that the Special Prosecutor had an excellent opportunity to make his mark and not to resign from his position due to some alleged threats on his life.

In a post on his Facebook timeline, Prof Yaw Gyampo wrote, “At his age, and given his experience, what did he [Amidu] fear about threats of death and intimidation? If armed robbers do not fear to die during robbery attacks even at very fortified places, how can an aged person like Amidu, doing the right thing for society, give up, simply because of threats on his life?

“As a young man, I have received several threats on my life before, for daring to speak my mind. But so what? I am sure he had similar threats when he fell out with Prof. Mills’s government and became a Vigilante Citizen.”

He continued: “Didn’t Amidu know that in our part of the world, corruption is rather the rule, than the exception, and it will fight anyone who fights it? Didn’t he know that transitional democracies are always quick to create institutions just to render them toothless by open or surreptitious executive interference and by denying them the needed resources to function?

“Didn’t he know that in developing democracies, some people are untouchable and that if you touch them, there will be consequences? Didn’t he know that it is normal in a developing democracy for people in power to react the way they may have reacted about his report that exposes some wrongdoing?” he added.

Prof. Gyampo noted that Martin Amidu’s position was “only a mere Special Prosecutor and not an Independent Public Prosecutor”.

“The two are completely different. The Special Prosecutor cannot be practically independent, as it operates in the shadows of the Attorney-General, who is a partisan appointee and can actually stop the Special Prosecutor from carrying out certain investigations,” Gyampo observed.

“When some of us advocated for the separation of the Attorney-General’s Department from the Ministry of Justice, and the creation of an Independent Public Prosecutor, way back in 2006, we were calling for an Independent Officer who won’t walk in the shadows of any government appointee.

“Amidu knew he wasn’t an Independent Public Prosecutor, and yet he wanted to be independent.”

Read the full post of Prof. Yaw Gyampo below.