President's 'blackmail' of NDC MPs: Amidu's allegation serious - Kweku Baako

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kweku Baako Jnr, has charged the Members of Parliament to clear themselves following accusations by former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu.

In an article authored by Martin Amidu, he accused the President of blackmailing some NDC Members of Parliament to do his bidding.

He wrote; ''In researching this rejoinder article I came across a news report by mynewsgh.com on Ghana Web dated 31st March 2021 with the heading: “Akufo-Addo ‘blackmailing ‘ NDC double salary MPs to do his bidding – Joy” which underpins the diversionary political propaganda being undertaken by the Office of the Attorney General and the Daily Guide Network. Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah is reported to have asked a rhetorical question about what is happening in Parliament and answered as follows:

“What’s Happening in the 8th Hung Parliament? Nana Addo is holding the balls of key double salary NDC’s MPs in the 8th Hung Parliament. You all know that when a man’s balls are being squeezed, his mind and actions are incoherently bizarre. So NDC rank and file be calm and understand Gen. Mosquito and Elders. .. NDC is now on Political Dialysis in the 8th Hung Parliament whilst Nana Addo keeps on squeezing the balls of all double salary NDC’s MPs and corrupt high ranking members intermittently. Can NDC survive till 2024?…

My resignation as the first Special Prosecutor was the result of the endemic attitude of President, Nana Akufo Addo’s penchant to usurp the constitutional authority of investigators and prosecutors in criminal justice administration as he tried to do in the Agyapa Royalties Transaction Anti-Corruption Risk Assessment Report implicating him.

My old school ethics and integrity as a lawyer of more than four decades standing guided me to resist the President’s unconstitutional interference and resigned my office instead of being his poodle. It had nothing to do with the Members of Parliament double salaries which I never saw nor handled during my tenure. The President’s responses to the media on 13th December 2018 is evidence, if the evidence is needed, that this President determines who may be prosecuted for a crime and not the Attorney General or Special Prosecutor as his pronouncements on the Members of Parliament double salaries amply demonstrates. God save Ghana from Corruption under this regime. Ghana First!''

Responding to the article, Kweku Baako stated that the allegations by Martin Amidu are serious and should not be swept under the carpet.

He asked the NDC MPs cited by Mr. Amidu to purge themselves of the accusations saying, "I don't believe it but, you see, this is a serious allegation that has some effect on those members. And I believe they know how to purge themselves of this allegation".

''Parliament as Parliament and they, Members of Parliament in the course of their work, if you're accused of certain things; you know what to do. Apart from the fact that there is a civil option - you can sue - in actual fact, within the Parliamentary business, standing orders and so forth, they know what to do . . . I'm stopping short of telling them what to do, excitement (exactly), but if your integrity is on the line in the course of discharging your business or Parliamentary responsibility, arguing on radio, rebutting it on the radio or in the newspapers is not sufficient," he accentuated.

He, however, asked the President of the Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo, not to respond to Mr Amidu's allegations.

"President doesn't have to respond to this thing. There are analysts who can answer some of those things, the question of Presidential interference."