Attorney-General’s conduct is legally unethical

The Centre for National Affairs is alarmed at the needless attempt by the Attorney-General’s Department to claim credit for a constitutionally mandated exercise it failed to initiate and pursue for and on behalf of the people of Ghana.

Such governance gimmicks are great disincentive to the few morally upright Ghanaians within our public institutions. Government must therefore not be petty in its handling of such landmark achievement by one such concerned citizen. The 14th June Supreme Court ruling in the Amidu Vs. Waterville & Others case had all nine (9) Justices who sat on the case make the point clearer that Mr. Amidu indeed single-handedly filed and pursued the case without any legal support from the Attorney-General’s Department.

The ruling further indicted civil society organizations for also not providing support in a matter that perfectly fit that jurisdiction. On the day of the judgment, the Attorney-General was in court and have been duly served with a copy of the ruling and so we find it an act of disrespect to the nine Supreme Court Justices who in their ruling came to the conclusion which is supported by the evidence on the ground that Mr Amidu filed and argued his case all by himself.

It is therefore unethical, distasteful and a needless governance gimmick to open such unhelpful fight to compete with Mr. Amidu for his most deserving glory. The Attorney-General’s Department is hereby advised to refrain from issuing such unproductive statements and rather be mindful that the conduct of Mr. Amidu in this landmark case is to a large extent a morale booster to other Public and Civil Servants who may be privy to similar acts of corruption against the public good of the citizens of Ghana.

We at the Centre expects the Attorney-General’s Department to be sincere, calm, study and reflect over what it could do for others who go out of their way to expose and pursue cases of corruption committed against the Republic of Ghana just as Mr. Amidu did instead of the petty reactionary gimmick it has engaged itself in.

The Deputy Attorney-General who authored that statement must apologize publicly to Mr. Amidu for his conduct. We will be compelled as a civil society organization to mount protests against the person of the Deputy Attorney-General in question if he does not yield to this civilized request of an unqualified apology to Mr. Amidu.

Rocky Obeng Senior Policy Analyst