Why Martin Amidu Protected NPP Officials

*• As CID, BNI & EOCO Could Not Work With Him*

To many, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, is a scapegoat sacrificed by President John Mills for claiming that he was a threat to certain minister who might be implicated in the concealment of gargantuan crimes against Ghanaians but to insiders, the man who almost became Vice-President in 2000, has been a total disappointment in the quest for justice.

Indeed, The Herald is informed that Mr. Amidu, onetime Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice under Jerry Rawlings was not a team player.

Outgoing Education Minister Betty Mould-Iddrisu played a tribal, ethnic and gender game with Mills’ quest for justice, but Martin Amidu had an over-bloated ego, with which he run state machinery until his sacking yesterday for what Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman said is “as a result of Mr. Amidu’s misconduct at a meeting last Friday, January 13th, 2012 presided over by His Excellency”.

Reports available to The Herald indicates that three key state organizations, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) led by Yaw Donkor, the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) led by Prosper Agblor and the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) headed by the Mr. Kweku Mortey had at various times raised concerns about his performance.

Their complaints, this paper is informed, bothered on his deliberate or calculated failure to take actions on having corrupt officials of the Kufour regime brought to book.

The three institutions have lamented how damning dockets painstakingly built by them have either being left unattended to or thrown at them after many months of their submission to the Attorney-General Department that further work had to be done on them.

In the case of the BNI, the prominent case docket involving the ex-Chief Executive of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) Mr. Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko was submitted to Mr. Amidu, after a thorough investigations but he failed to charged the man with “stealing” as recommended.

The junior brother of the Nana Addo’s Campaign Manager Boakye Agyarko is accused of establishing secret accounts into which he siphoned FDB monies for his private use.

Mr. Agyarko is presently the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso Waogo Constituency in Accra. The Herald learnt that on the day when the Agyarko docket was submitted Mr. Amidu personal, he made a rather shocking remark to the BNI personnel to the effect that he would not be the one to do Mills’ dirty work for him by having people jailed.

While some notables cases such as the Ghana International Airline case, Yaa Na murder trials, Ghana@50, Mobila murder, the ¢60 billion paid to journalists and other cases are still crawling at the Attorney General’s Department, untouched thus pushing the NPP to give Ghanaians a false impression that they were not corrupt after all.

On the part of the Police CID, a case docket corrupt sale of Ghana stake in the Ghana’s 20 per cent interest in the Ghana Oil Palm Developments Company Limited (GOPDC) to some equally corrupt Belgians by ex-President Kufuor nephew and ex-Minister of Finance Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, was handed to him sometime last year but the case is yet to be court.

Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei and his two brothers’ calculated action resulted in the loss of some Gh¢51 million, approximately US$31 million, to the state, according to Police investigators.

The three Osei brothers -Dr. Akoto Osei, D.K. Osei, Secretary to former President John Agyekum Kufuor, and Albert Osei, the senior of the Osei’s and a former director of SIAT Ghana Ltd and GOPDC- a police investigative report suggest, hijacked the powers of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) to plot and succeeded in selling Ghana’s Oil Palm Plantation to a Belgian Company at a very ridiculous price, from US$18 million to US$3.6 million.

Oil Palm fetches hundreds of millions of US Dollars for Malaysia, and Ghana could have reaped a fortune, but for the Osei brothers, the investigators told The Herald.

In the case of EOCO, Mr. Mortey is said to have had many heated sessions with Mr. Amidu his handling of things. Some cases from outfit are yet to be prosecuted by the Attorney-General’s Department.

Prior to his sacking, Mr. Amidu pushed the Consultant at the Prosecutions Division, Gertrude G. Aikins, to say that the case of the murder of Mr. Roko Frimpong, Deputy Managing Director of Ghana Commercial Bank, Ms. Aikins said the committal proceeding in the case had been done.

On the murder case involving Corporal Ebenezer Owusu at the Ho Residency, she said the case docket had just been received at the Division.

She said the Division was also yet to receive “a single” case docket on the case of Sheila Sackey, who was the alleged Head of the Presidential Estates under former President John Agyekum Kufuor, and misconducted herself.

Meanwhile, press statement from signed by Chief of Staff, John Martey Newman, has explained why Mr. Mills has with immediate effect, relieved Mr. Amidu of his post as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

It said “the decision is as a result of Mr. Amidu’s misconduct at a meeting last Friday, January 13th, 2012 presided over by His Excellency”.

“Mr. Amidu’s behaviour is incompatible with acceptable standards expected of Ministers and Appointees of the President. The letter conveying the President’s decision to relieve Mr Amidu of his post thanked him for services rendered to the country as member of his government”.

“Meanwhile, the President has directed the Minister for the Interior, Hon Benjamin Kunbour, to take temporary responsibility for the Ministry of Justice until a substantive minister is appointed,” it said.

The President has further directed the acting Minister to continue the prosecution of all government cases currently before the court including the Alfred Woyome case.