Gbevlo arrested & detained me on eve of 2012 polls - Amidu

Former Attorney General Martin Amidu has accused former National Security Adviser Larry Gbevlo-Larty of illegally searching his (Amidu’s) house on the eve of the 2012 general elections using officers from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI).

The former Minister of Justice also accused Mr Gbevlo-Lartey of arresting and detaining him illegally on the same day for no apparent reason.

In his latest statement issued to the media on Sunday to rebuff claims by former National Security Adviser Larry Gbevlo-Lartey that his (Amidu’s) dismissal in 2012 by President John Mills (late) had nothing to do with his suggestion to the Government–at the time–to use his predecessor Betty Mould-Iddrisu–under whose tenure the money was paid to Mr Woyome–as a prosecution a witness in the Government’s quest towards retrieving the money, Mr Amidu said: “…Has Gbevlo-Lartey forgotten that his actions in sending officials of the BNI to search my residence, arrest me and detain me for hours on 6th December 2012, without a Court warrant on the very eve of 2012 Election when tensions were very high in the country could have caused mayhem in the country if I had invited the media and others to my residence that day?”

“I refused to be used by him as a scape goat in causing any upheavals that might lead to confusion and God knows what, at the nick of the elections!” he said.

“Citizen Vigilante” as Mr Amidu is called due to his lone efforts towards retrieving a Ghc51.2 million judgment debt which was illegally paid to businessman Alfred Woyome by the state in 2010, said the actions of Mr Gbevlo-Lartey on the eve of the elections could have plunged the country into chaos if he (Amidu) had fought the matter out in the media.

“Does Gbevlo-Lartey know whose votes would have been affected most if I had made his illegal search, arrest, and detention at the BNI public on that day even if the election still went ahead?

“Did Gbevlo-Lartey have the authority of the President to cause the search, my arrest and detention on the eve of an election with dire probable consequences for the nation? He did not!

“The President told my emissaries later that he was not informed, was not aware, let alone to instruct him on that critical day in the nation’s history: the President undertook to deal with the matter. I prevented whatever unconstitutional intentions, if any, Gbevlo-Lartey might have had to use me innocently for: I preserved the dignity of Ghana as a democracy!” he said.