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Martin Amidu’s ‘Dirty’ Tricks Backfired

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 Source: The Informer

As He Tries To Hold On To Post, But President Says ‘Lie-lie’

Investigative Desk Report

There is more to it than the eye could see, as credible investigations conducted by The Informer expose the dismissed Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Martin Amidu.

The beleaguered Attorney-General’s rather weird attempt to stay in office and continue causing disaffection for the President Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government resulting from gross incompetence has backfired.

With the erroneous impression created by a section of the NPP media and their political rabble-rousers since it came to fore yesterday that His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills has relieved Mr. Martin Amidu of his post as government’s chief legal adviser, suggesting that his dismissal was as a result of the latter’s indication in his press statement to expose some colleague Ministers of State in the Mills government for having committed massive crime, intelligence picked up by this paper reveals otherwise.

According to The Informer’s Osu Castle sources, Mr. Martin Amidu was fully aware that he was going to be released of his post if the reshuffle had come because of his sickening ineptitude ever since he took over from Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu.

“My brother, Martin Amidu knew what he was about when he issued that press statement having picked the signal that he was virtually becoming liability to government than asset, and so, will be booted out of office in the next cabinet reshuffle; and for people to think that the decision by the President was because he gave the indication of exposing appointees of government as he has made Ghanaians believe, is completely behind the point”.

“In fact, the decision to relieve him was taken way back when it became obvious that he was not up to the task but sleeping on the job. So for the opposition NPP to think that his dismissal was based on his recently issued press statement, is unfortunate”, the source pointed out.

”He did what he did to court public sympathy for himself, sensing the danger that he was on his way out of government, and so, if he decides to quicken the pace of his dismissal by disrespecting the President, so be it”, the source added.

“Martin Amidu can become the darling boy of the NPP if they think that his press release will enable them to come back to power, but the truth is that, in addition to his gross ineffectiveness, he disrespected his employer and so got fired”, the source indicated, saying no amount of vile propaganda on the part of the opposition NPP, using the claims by Martin Amidu as captured in his press release will affect the electoral fortunes of the President and for that matter the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

However, further intelligence information picked up by The Informer has it that, Mr. Martin Amidu could not substantiate the allegations made in his press statement when he was called to the Presidency, making it obvious that his statement was only a prank to help him stay in office, in the wake of his gross incompetence.

The Informer salutes the President for his decision, and will forever respect and support him in his agenda of making Ghana a better place.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Informer on the dismissal of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Martin Amidu reveal that the Ghanaian public is in support of the President’s decision on the issue.

The Informer for the second time is publishing the unedited copy of Mr. Amidu’s press statement below

This press release has been necessitated by three telephone calls from Bawku in the Upper East Region, Burma Camp and Tema both in the Greater Accra Region on the 9th January 2012 expressing support and urging caution for my personal safety because of the cowardly, malicious and libelous attacks against my well established reputation and integrity as a lawyer, a politician and the Attorney- General of the Republic of Ghana by a partisan and rented NDC press group who perceive that I am not performing the duties of my office in their partisan political interests.

I wish to assure the members and supporters of the National Democratic Congress who are still unequivocally and resolutely committed to the original ideas of the 31st December revolution of “Freedom, Justice, Probity and Accountability:,” enshrined in the preamble of the 1992 constitution that I remain steadfast to those principles, ideals and commitments as the foundation of the fourth republican constitution.

I remember the gallant men and women who laid down their lives in diverse ways that this country must live and serve the cause of the majority of the ordinary people whose sweat has consistently been exploited by the elite and elitist politicians in the name of service to the people.

I appreciate the privilege and recognition accorded my integrity and honesty over the decades when I was invited on the 4th June 2011 to the lay the wreath on behalf of the probity, transparency and accountability in memory of our fallen colleagues and heroes.

I have faith and believe in my Ministerial oath of office as a Minister of State and my cabinet oath that requires me to “uphold, preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the Republic of the Ghana as by law established…” Consequently, I wish to assure the people of Ghana that I still stand by my promise in spite of the fact that hard core criminals in our society today have made it a habit to hold paid membership cards of major political parties in the republic as an unconstitutional insurance against crime and criminal prosecutions.

I wish core members and supporters of the NDC who cherish the principles and ideas upon which the party was founded to know that the attacks against me which started in the Daily Post publications of the 3rd January 2012 were planned by a colleague Minister of State, who perceived that my integrity and professionalism as a lawyer was a threat to the concealment of gargantuan crimes against the people of Ghana in which they might be implicated. An alibi was consequently created on 30th December 2012 to unleash the gullible section of the NDC press on me by the leakage of official documents from my ministry through the perverse section of a rented NDC press to the pubic beginning the 3rd of January 2012.

That has back fired because the leaked official documents by the Daily Post; the Informer; the National Democrat; the Ghanaian Lens; etc have rather inadvertently supported my honesty and integrity in public office and my call for the prosecution of criminals regardless of their political party colorations or their social status.

I was deputy Attorney-General and Deputy Minister for Justice for upwards of twelve and half years and know it is not proper for an Attorney-General to execute the functions entrusted to him under article 88 of the constitution in the media instead of the courts of justice. I will speak to the media when it is absolutely necessary to do so but I will not discuss people’s rights and cases in the media to prejudice their eventual procedural rights to a fair trial.

The ethics of a legal profession and the Bar, of which I am a leader, are more sacred to me than that of young and inexperienced members of a communication team of the NDC who are absolutely ignorant of the functions of an Attorney-General under the Constitution of Ghana.

I wish to conclude in this press statement by stating that there is not a single criminal docket against any high political operative of the NPP which has been ready for prosecution in the Director of Public Prosecution’s office that I have failed or refused to prosecute as that Minister of State and the gullible NDC press want the whole world to believe. Fairness requires that NDC criminals be prosecuted by me as well, as an independent and impartial Attorney-General, albeit appointed by the NDC Government.

I have sufficient integrity and experience as a Ghanaian and a legal practitioner who has personally conducted several leading cases reported in the Law Reports of Ghana to naively send hearsay and newspaper accusations to the courts of Justice only to lose them as was the practice a few years past.

Cool heads are what are needed in the office of the Attorney-General and not emotions, inexperience and crass incompetence in the practice of the law.

As for the section of the rented NDC press calling for my removal or dismissal from office, I wish to assure them that I never begged to be appointed Attorney-General: I opposed it on four separate occasions. That criminal section of the NDC press should be assured that I am ready, able and willing for that eventuality. The inescapable fact is that at the end of the day truth will prevail over falsehood in the Republic of Ghana.

I do not fear for my personal safety in a cause I have fought for since I was 30 years old. I am now over 60 years and count myself lucky if I pay the ultimate sacrifice which my compatriots paid in 1979 and 1981 belatedly in the regime of the third NDC Government.

When you die you never know you never lived. Destiny can never be changed but the good people of Ghana and those who laid down their lives from them will forever live on.

Ghana as a nation can never and should never be allowed to be intimidated by charlatans in political disguise.

Signed

Martin Amidu

Source: The Informer