We Were Angered By “Rented Press” Label – Editor

One of the Seven newspaper Editors sympathetic to the cause of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) party that came out with the same headline on Monday, has explained that their action was not premeditated but simply because they were pissed off with the description given to them by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu.

The Managing Editor of the Daily Democrat Newspaper, Emmanuel Opare-Djan reiterates the position of these pro-government media outlets advocating the dismissal of Attorney General, Martin Amidu, saying the he (Amidu) has failed to discharge his duties efficiently and must with immediate effect resign or be sacked by the president.

The A-G in a press release last Wednesday described sections of the pro-government media as “a partisan and rented NDC press group who perceive that I am not performing the duties of my office in their partisan political interests” and accused the Daily Post, National Democrat and the Ghanaian Lens of allowing themselves to be used by an unnamed colleague minister of state.

But the A-G’s statement has been condemned by NDC loyalists with some calling for his dismissal for failing to use internal party structures to address his grievances.

Indeed, quite remarkably, on Monday January 16th, not less than 7 pro-government newspapers (Daily Post, National Democrat, Ghanaian Lens, The Informer, Daily Democrat, The Catalyst and The Crystal Clear Lens), rolled out with a similar screaming headline “A-G Martin Amidu Must Go”.

Opare-Djan argues the A-G does not share in the vision of the ruling NDC party. To him, the fiery response of a statement by the A-G which he claimed sought to insult journalists who were only performing their duties of analyzing the performance of government appointees was like a love letter from a broken hearted man.

“It was unfortunate the kind of unprintable words used by the A-G to describe the same media that stood by him a couple of months ago,” he said.

He added that when the NDC media realized that the former A-G, Betty Mould-Iddrisu was under-performing, they pushed for her removal, all in the hope that Mr. Amidu would do a better job. But that was not to be.

The Daily Democrat Editor challenged Mr. Amidu on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia morning show to be bold and name the identity of the colleague Minister of State who he alleged has connived to unleash the gullible section of the “rented NDC press” on him.

“It is appalling that a whole Attorney General will make vain allegations and leave it hanging without substantiating his claims…not all the NDC press is ganging up against Mr. Amidu…we didn’t plan (coming out with the same banner headline) except that we all share the same sentiments that Amidu must go…and we were angered by the description he gave us,” he said.