Atta Mills was a 'close friend' – Martin Amidu

Special Prosecutor nominee Martin A.B.K Amidu says he was much grieved when his ‘close friend’, former President John Evans Atta Mills died and refuted claims that he was dismissed from office by the latter for insubordination.

Mr Amidu was emphatic that he was “very close” to the former late president than most NDC members – “Professor Mills was a very close friend and I was a close confidant and adviser”.

“It pained me Atta Mills died,” he said, to clear speculations that he was dismissed after he reportedly fell out with the late President.

He was responding to claims of insubordination leading to his dismissal and near-physical assault against then President John Evans Atta Mills when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Tuesday following a question put to him by a member of the Committee.

Businessman Alfred Woyome, in 2016, held a press conference and categorically stated that Mr Amidu was being "used by unseen forces as a weapon against innocent people".

According to Mr Woyome, in 2011, something happened between him [Amidu] and the then President, accusing the former Attorney General of “once attempting to beat up former President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills" prior to his (Amidu's) sacking.

But the nominee dismissed the report as false during his vetting as Special Prosecutor saying Prof Mills was rather pressured to sack him.

Mr. Amidu stated that he offered to tender in his resignation letter after the quarrel and was not sacked as reports sought to suggest.

“Don’t push me to say much about this issue. Nothing of that sort happened.....

"Mr. Chairman, I can assure you that I was not dismissed for insubordination…there is a court judgement that stated that my dismissal was unlawful. So if anybody gives the impression that I was dismissed for insubordination, he should go to the court and read the judgment.”

“Professor Mills was a very close friend and I was a close confidant and adviser and I’m saying that His Excellency Sir Bebako Mensah his secretary will tell you there’s no week he doesn’t send for me specifically until the thirteenth. I don’t know who asked him to call me and my brother’s wife and put those questions to me, that’s when I thought there was breach of trust so I told him I won’t serve you again. I said it that you asked me to come as a friend, if you don’t trust me as a friend I will not serve you again.

“…On the nineteenth, they announced that they had terminated my appointment then somebody goes and says my appointment was terminated for misconduct, so I went to court. That’s the situation, Bebako Mensah is alive, he was Ambassador to the Vatican, he was there, Martey Newman was there, Betty Mould-Iddrisu was there, I was there. Betty-Mould’s husband and I continued talking, I have the emails here, don’t let us go there. That is why I wrote a tribute when Prof. died, it pained me that he died, Naadu (late President Mills wife) will tell you that we were very close even after the event. Prof told people what he thought about being pressured to let me go,” he told the committee

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.