Martin Amidu’s claims are bare assertions – Gov’t

Government has waded into the Martin Amidu versus Anas ‘drama series’ which has churned out several episodes over whether or not Anas was commissioned by government to undertake the undercover expose against the judiciary.

“The government of the Republic of Ghana was not involved at all in the commissioning of the investigations… Government was not aware of what was happening with respect to the judicial scandal until it broke” said Deputy Attorney General, Dominic Ayineh when he spoke to TV3’s Daniel Lartey.

“You can tell from the reaction of the executive that we were not in any way in collision with Anas on this matter. We ourselves got to know of the scandal when the petition was sent to the Chief Justice, and it was forwarded to the president.

“That was when my boss was informed of the development and we had to advice on the constitutional and legal aspect of it. So it comes as really very strange that the honourable former Attorney General (Martin Amidu) has made these allegations” He added.

The revelations by Mr. Amidu has generated quite a debate in the public space raising concerns about governments involvement and in the who Tiger Eye expose and why both parties (government and Anas) want to shield some people but Mr. Ayineh said, “…there’s no scintilla of evidence backing what he has said. They are bare assertions. The fact that he was in office at some point in time when some collaboration took place doesn’t necessarily mean that there will always be a collaboration between Anas and government.”

Mr. Ayineh’s comments come on the back of Martin Amidu’s accusation of CEO of Tiger Eye PI and investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas of collaborating with government to expose corruption in the judiciary, legislature and the seat of government.

Whereas Mr. Amidu does not have a problem with the methodology of the investigation, he is raising concerns with what he terms a deliberate decision by Anas and government to protect Members of Parliament and the executive who were caught in various acts of corruption by Tiger Eye PI.

According to Mr. Amidu, Anas is condoning governments ‘diabolical’ plans NOT to expose MP’s and other government officials because he (Anas) was contracted to undertake the exercise… An accusation Anas has vehemently denied, calling on Mr. Amidu to go to court if he has evidence to that effect.

The back and forth by the two ‘anti-corruption’ campaigners caught government's attention leading to the flat denial by Mr. Ayine, who questioned that “in any case, why is such collaboration not being praised if at all it occurred?

“Why is that not praiseworthy? Why would anyone condemn the actions of Anas? He’s just trying to knock the heads of the executives and the judiciary together and that is unfortunate.”

Part of the accusations leveled against Anas by Mr. Amidu include the fact that the investigative journalist has a diplomatic passport to help facilitate his travels globally, but the deputy AG says “I do not think so. I don’t have any evidence that he’s been issued with a service passport from government. Did Mr. Amidu say that? Did he give the passport number and evidence of Anas being issued with a diplomatic passport?

“Martin Amidu is a very good lawyer, and we lawyers depend very much on evidence to prove our cases. If he has said that Anas was provided with a diplomatic passport, it means that he is privy to that information. He should tell us with the passport number and provide us with the evidence of the issuance of the passport.”

Meanwhile the deputy minority leader in Parliament, Dominic Nitiwul has denied reports that the although the leadership of parliament watched a video produced by Anas, it was a video on the judicial expose and not evidence of MP’s involved in acts of corruption.