Martin Amidu writes: Akufo-Addo is an admitted friend of Alistair Mathias, period!

The President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, did not deny being Alistair Mathias’ friend in his response to Al Jazeera’s request for his comments.

The argument that Nana Addo could not have been Mathias’ lawyer when the president himself does not remember whether he was Mathias’ lawyer is spurious and diversionary.

Nana Addo is an admitted friend of the alleged kingpin gold smuggler and money launderer for gold deals. Period! Befriending a criminal gang member and/or financial architect is typical of the previous conduct of the President of Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo’s response to Al Jazeera when it sought his comments about a statement made by Alistair Mathias, a Canadian, described as a financial architect that the Ghanaian president is Alistair Mathias’ good friend – in fact was his lawyer, was reported by Al Jazeera as follows: “President Akufo-Addo of Ghana told us that he had no recollection of acting as a lawyer for Alistair Mathias or his company.” Episode 4 of the Al Jazeera “Gold Mafia” documentary is a must-watch on: full episode 4 gold mafia aljazeera – YouTube

Nana Akufo-Addo knows that to use the idiom “have no recollection” means to “remember nothing”. Nana Akufo-Addo’s reported response convinces me that Alistair Mathias was speaking the truth at the meeting with the undercover investigators from Al Jazeera who posed as Chinese businessmen. Firstly, and very importantly, Nana Akufo-Addo does not deny Alistair Mathias’ assertion that Nana Addo is his good friend. Nana Addo merely uses the idiom, “have no recollection” in relation to being his lawyer. Secondly, an astute and experienced lawyer like Nana Akufo-Addo knows the difference between “I never acted as a lawyer for Alistair Mathias or his company”, and “I have no recollection of acting as a lawyer for Alistair Mathias or his company’ which is tantamount to pleading amnesia.

In spite of the astute and experienced Nana Akufo-Addo’s response as reported by Al Jazeera without mentioning the name of the company, a less astute, inexperienced younger lawyer, and underling claiming to be counsel for President Akufo-Addo, Kow Essuman, tweeted that:

“The President has not been in private practice since 2000, neither has the President nor his law firm, Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co, acted as a lawyer for this Alistair Mathias or Guldrest. The President does not know this Mathias or Guldrest. Ignore the spurious allegations.”

What was the necessity for an employee of the Jubilee House, the seat of Nana Akufo-Addo’s Government of cronies, family, and friends to contradict what the President, who is the principal actor in this drama, told Al Jazeera. Curiously, the tweet was not directed at Al Jazeera but to the Ghanaian public to divert attention from the implication of Alistair Mathias’ statement within the context of the Al Jazeera investigation into Southern Africa’s biggest gold and money laundering operations, otherwise known as Al Jazeera’s Gold Mafia investigation.

Jubilee House’s assigned Goebbel, Paul Adom-Otchere, at the Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme on Tuesday, 18 April 2023 also attempted to refute Alistair Mathias’ undisputed claim that the Ghanaian president was his lawyer during an editorial on his programme. Paul Adom-Otchere, a public officer Chairing the Ghana Airport Company Limited as an employee of Jubilee House naively uses the age of Alistair Mathias as proof that it is not true that Akufo-Addo was his lawyer as he would have been a teenager: “The last time Akufo-Addo was a lawyer for anybody was the year, 2000…”

Paul Adom-Otchere, without adducing any evidence parrots that: “… in 2001 Akufo-Addo became attorney general, from there foreign minister, from there opposition leader… He didn’t do law, he didn’t go to court, he never went to his law firm, Akufo-Addo and Prempeh, and the law firm didn’t represent him.” I do not know who told Paul Adom-Otchere that an opposition leader cannot practice law or that going to court is what makes a person a practicing lawyer. Above all, Paul Adom-Otchere does not produce proof that Nana Akufo-Addo ceased to be a partner in his law firm, Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co when he ceased to be the Minister for Foreign Affairs up to 7 January 2017 when he took the oath of office as President of Ghana. Surely, Alistair Mathias was not also a teenager when Nana Addo became his good friend or how does Paul Adom-Otchere explain that undenied fact by the President to Ghanaians?

The poorly trained Goebbel of the Jubilee House at Metro TV cowardly and inexcusably refuses to name the supreme court judge he claims was Alistair Mathias’ lawyer in 2014 in a criminal case brought by one Henry Osei against Alistair Mathias for suspected fraud. Justice Clarence Thomas, the oldest Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court is making the news for suspected criminal conduct and there should be no different yardstick for Ghana as a constitutional democracy.

Paul Adom-Otchere naively forgets that by the disclosures he made he was letting the cat out of the bag about Nana Addo’s friendship with Alistair Mathias should it turn out that the Supreme Court judge is Nana Addo’s protégée at the Supreme Court, whom the president praised himself on 10 December 2021 as reported by 3news.com. The 3news.com report quoted Nana Addo as follows:

“I must have been doing something right in my other life. When I see today, the two of my protégés, Yonny Kulendi and Godfred Dame both members of Akufo Addo, Prempeh & Co are occupying two important and sensitive positions in our state, Justice of the Supreme Court and Attorney General. …I wish them well and I have every confidence that they will discharge their offices with credit.”

Or is Paul Adom-Octchere perusing another agenda against Supreme Court Justice Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi? With Paul Adom-Otchere’s hint I researched the allegation he raised against the judge without a name and I came upon two links that led me to the possible person on the Supreme Court Adom-Otchere was referring to. The reader can read them on Alistair Jude Mathias is at large | News Ghana and http://myinfo.com.gh/2021/04/herald-responds-to-lawyer-adjei-dwomohs-frivolous-case-at-nmc/ . The second reportage names the judge specifically. Dennis Adjei-Dwomoh is currently a member of the National Investment Board (NIB) appointed by this Government. But to act as a lawyer for any suspected criminal is not a criminal conduct on the part of the lawyer. Every suspect is entitled under the Constitution to a good defence. That is why hiding the name is pernicious.

The President stated on 10 December 2021 that Yonny Kulendi and Godfred Dame, both former members of Akufo Addo, Prempeh & Co, were his protégées. Mr. Godfred Dame was enrolled on the Roll of Lawyers in Ghana in 2003. This is inconsistent with the argument that: “The President has not been in private practice since 2000….” as contended by Mr. Essuman and Mr. Adom-Otchere. How did Mr. Dame become the President’s protégée if he had nothing to do with Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co as a law partner? The public needs an explanation.

President Akufo-Addo could have introduced Alistair Mathias as a friend to one of his numerous protégées whom he groomed in Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co after listening to the legal problems of his friend. The protégée need not to be still working at Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co. It is all a matter of confidence and trust as he exhibited to his two protégées by elevating them as the President by their appointments. The layman would consider the referral by such an astute and experienced lawyer of his legal matters to his protegees as the senior lawyer holding himself out as a practicing lawyer and will naturally describe the more senior lawyer as his lawyer. Normally, when things do not go on well with the manner the protegee handles the case, the friend returns to the astute and experienced one to complain. Holding oneself out as a practicing lawyer and referring a good friend to another lawyer is as good as being in private practice as a lawyer. Alistair Mathias cannot, therefore, be faulted if he understood his relationship with Nana Addo as one of lawyer and client.

The 1 hour 12 minutes 36 seconds of the Episode 4 of the Al Jazeera documentary on the Gold Mafia in Southern Africa is very damning of the numerous African Presidents and their modus operandi. One can, therefore, understand the disquiet amongst Nana Addo’s underlings in his not too elegant response to Al Jazeera’s request for his comments on what Alistair Mathias said about him. But who in Ghana does not know that Nana Akufo-Addo has associated with suspected criminal gang members before and after he assumed office as President?

The younger generation might not have heard of the likes of Raymond Kwame Amankwah who was alleged to have attended the victory celebration of the 2020 election in Accra only to return to his base in Mozambique to die of COVID-19 said to have been contracted at the victory party in Ghana. The fact that Nana Addo has been a friend to Ernesto Taricone and his Ghanaian family members is an open secret and explains why Alfred Woyome, the financial engineer, alone had his assets sold in satisfaction of the Supreme Court judgment in the Waterville case by this Government. One of the lawyers who assisted Ernesto Taricone to register Waterville in the British Virgin Island is a known friend of Nana Addo and was suspected as being instrumental in the scandalous Agyapa Royalties Limited registered in the Island of Jersey. Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s IMCIM Galamsey Report of 2021 is also a trending topic. Now, we know that Alistair Mathias the alleged gold smuggling and money laundering financial architect is at least Nana Addo’s good friend, to mention but a few examples. Mr. Mathias could be the financial architect behind Agyapa and Gold-for-Oil.

And this is the Father or should I say, the Mother, of the nation who took the constitutional oath to ensure the nourishment of We the People of Ghana and to protect us from economic hardships and sufferings. But he instead has led the nation into the insolvency and economic mess we are witnessing for the first time in our live time as a nation. The Constitution demands that the Government be accountable and transparent to Ghanaians with allegations made against the President. Patriots are enjoined by the Constitution not to allow the Government to deceive the public as I have done in this discourse. Ghana First!

Martin A. B. K. Amidu

24 April 2023