NDC releases Martin Amidu’s 2012 apology letter to Mills for misconduct

Communicators of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) have released to the media, a copy of an apology letter, which they say was written by former Attorney General Martin Amidu to President John Mills in January 2012 to apologise for a “misconduct” over which he was allegedly dismissed.

The release of the letter follows a back-and-forth between Mr Amidu and former National Security Coordinator Larry Gbevlo-Lartey over what actually led to the former Justice Minister’s dismissal.

Mr Amidu in an earlier statement a few weeks ago said he was dismissed by President Mills because the Government was averse to his suggestion that his predecessor Betty Mould-Iddrisu be used as a prosecution witness in a case filed by the State towards retrieving a Ghc51.2-million judgment debt paid to businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome illegally.

Gbevlo-Lartey on his Facebook subsequently denied Mr Amidu’s claim saying: “…That is not a statement of fact for those who witnessed the episode that led to the firing of Martin… Dissemination of a fact accessed by such privilege of office is not for me a task at own volition… Truth stands – suffice it to say that the statement amounts to stating falsehood.”

Mr Amidu later accused Mr Gbevlo-Lartey of seeking to curry favour with the Mahama administration by wading into a matter he [Gbevlo-Lartey] knew nothing about.

Excerpts of Amidu’s accusation against Gbevlo-Lartey:

As for the incident of 13th January 2012 that he claims to know so much about, he was not present during the main discussion. Gbevlo-Lartey and Danquah, his deputy, came into the President’s office, the forum, after the discussions had concluded and the meeting was being adjourned to 3 pm to enable Captain Kojo Tsikata and Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama to join the meeting. He cannot, therefore, be talking of what really took place at that meeting from personal knowledge but from hearsay.

The 3p.m meeting never came off when I presented myself at the office of the Secretary to the President to await the meeting. Captain Tsikata came for me from the Secretary’s office to the Chief of Staff’s conference room for a “two-man”. My understanding was that he had been mandated by the President to convince me to rescind my decision to submit my resignation to the President.

Is Gbevlo-Lartey aware of the conversation and assurances Captain Tsikata whom I have had great respect for since our service together in the PNDC and NDC 1 & part of 2 gave me that convinced me to stay on and pursue all those implicated in the Woyome scam in the Court to its logical conclusion? That was the reason I amended the Writ and Statement of Claim that I filed in the High Court and was present myself in Court on 16th January 2012. There are e-mail discussions between Gbevlo-Lartey and myself on the draft amendment before I filed them at the behest of Captain Tsikata and the late Kofi Awoonor.

Was Gbevlo-Lartey consulted when the President delegated the then Member of the Council of State and my senior brother, Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama on 18th January 2012 who invited me to his house with the demand from the President that I withdraw in writing my press statement of 12th January 2012 or be dismissed? I told Ahaji Iddrisu Mahama to convey to the President that I was ready for any eventuality and will not ever withdraw that truthful press statement. The next day, 19th January 2012 at 1 p. m I was handed a purported letter of termination of appointment with immediate effect only for a letter on the President’s official green stationery to go to the press under the signature of John Martey Newman stating that I had been dismissed for misconduct.

Later, representatives of the Government alleged that my misconduct was that I had failed at the meeting to name the Ministers of State involved in the Gargantuan crimes. That is when I wrote to the press and the public that I had named those Ministers in a report dated 6th January 2012 which the President had requested from me when I met him in New York on or about 15th December 2011, a copy of which I had addressed to the National Security Co-ordinator (for purely strategic and tactical reasons). I never classified the report for good reasons.

I made a press statement about Ministers of State involved in Gargantuan crimes. I also advised the President of my intention as the Attorney General to prosecute Woyome along with all his accomplices and to persuade the then Attorney General to be a witness or be prosecuted. I am then invited by a Member of the Council of State (incidentally Betty Mould-Iddrisu’s husband) at the behest of the President and told to withdraw my press statement accusing members of the Government and its card bearing members who use the NDC as an insurance against prosecutions for crime.

The next day the President true to his demand through Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama purports to dismiss me with immediate effect. Am I, therefore, wrong to contend that I was removed from office to prevent me from prosecuting the offending NDC Ministers and party members that raped the nation?

But I proved the Government wrong after leaving office in obtaining favourable decisions in the Supreme Court that shows that Ministers of State indeed flouted the 1992 Constitution in raping the consolidated fund for friends and NDC party financiers contrary to the NDC’s own values and Constitution. The Supreme Court decisions are final and no one can challenge my position on this matter as expressed in my press statement of 12th January 2012 – some of the names are expressly or impliedly contained in the Supreme Court judgments.

Gbevlo-Lartey after his sudden and unexpected removal from office may be seeking to curry favour with the Government by pretending to know everything that happened before I left office. I would want Gbevlo-Lartey and his type in the NDC to know for the avoidance of all doubts that on 4th September 2014 a High Court entered judgment in my favour recognising that my alleged dismissal for misconduct was illegal, and wrong as it was without due process of law.

But 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 scapegoat in causing any upheavals that might lead to confusion and God knows what, at the nick of the elections!

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 latter 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!

There are other things to be said about my latter relationship with Gbevlo-Lartey after I left office should he persist in peddling untruths about me to which he has no personal knowledge. He had used cajoling with promises, threats, and intimidation on me with the singular intention of shutting me up. I will not now be cowed and thugs can be sent to assassinate me should the Government or anybody wish, for all I care!

I am sending this rejoinder out at the weekend so that it does not on a working day detract from the real issues of the perception that the Government and the Attorney General were not bent on sincerely prosecuting Woyome and all his accomplices or retrieving the judgment debts ordered by the Supreme Court.

The intention to overwhelm me with personal attacks by agents of Government and the NDC some of whom may selfishly and greedily be seeking only to build their personal stomach infrastructure at the expense of the Republic will not succeed because those who have ever worked with me know that I was a work horse for the Governments I served and I still have the same energy to protect and defend the Constitution of Ghana as by law established even during my retirement.

Content of Martin Amidu's apology letter:

On the back of the recriminations, Communicators of the NDC Thursday released Mr Amidu’s purported apology letter on social media to, according to them, set the records straight.

The letter dated 18th January, 2012 was addressed to His Excellency Prof John Evans Atta-Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana, Office of the President, Accra. It had the address of the Attorney General’s Department, P.O.Box MB60, Accra with Ref. No PS.3 with the headline: ‘Letter of Apology’ signed by Martin A.B.K Amidu (Attorney General).

In the said letter, Mr Amidu said: “I write to reiterate the verbal apology I rendered to Your Excellency and to again formally render my unqualified apology for my emotional reaction to Your Excellency and others present at the interaction with you on Friday 13th January 2012. Your Excellency is aware that I had been under siege from our own press from 3rd January 2012 to the date of the said interaction. I had therefore come to the interaction with the perspective of a person who perceived his integrity to have been targeted for destruction. This of course did not help my reactions and I am sincerely sorry for them. As it is customary, I have solicited the Chairman of the Council of State and Capt. Kojo Tsikata (rtd) as elders to be kind enough to reiterate my apology to you on my behalf.”