'I swore to protect Constitution, not President'

Anti-corruption campaigner, Martin Amidu, who served as Attorney General under ex-President John Mills (late), has argued that his recent revelation – in his back-and-forth arguments with investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas – of certain information he was privy to as a Minister, does not amount to a breach of his oath of secrecy.

Under Ghana’s laws, Ministers of State swear an oath of secrecy that bars them from revealing, at any time, any information they were privy to as members of Government.

Mr. Amidu recently revealed in some media interviews that during his time in Government, authorities took certain measures to address corruption, one of those being the commissioning of Mr. Anas to investigate the judiciary.

Mr. Anas has denied the claim and said even though he has collaborated with Government on several projects in the past, he never had that collaboration in the case of the judicial investigation.

Asked by Joy FM’s Samson Lardy Anyenini if he had not breached the oath of secrecy he swore to, by dint of his recent revelations of things that he said happened in Government when he was part of the Executive, Mr Amidu said the onus to protect and defend the 1992 Constitution supersedes the oath of secrecy.

“Article 1 makes the Constitution the supreme law of the land. Article 3 gives every citizen the right to defend the Constitution. So, if the Government in which I was, is acting unconstitutionally, my loyalty is transferred from the cabinet to the Constitution,” he argued.

“It is because of this that the Government will be committing a crime and acting unconstitutionally that this country is not moving forward,” he added.

Mr. Amidu said: “I swore the oath of secrecy to protect the Constitution of Ghana, not the President of Ghana. If the President is committing [a] crime and acting unconstitutionally, Article 3 supersedes whatever oath I took as a member of Government”.

He has dared his critics to sue him over that if they so wished. “Anybody who thinks I have broken my oath of secrecy – I am basing it on Article 3 – go to court and I will come and answer.”