Sack ‘incompetent’ Amidu – ASEPA urges govt

The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has charged government to dismiss Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu over claims of incompetency.

A report from ASEPA and copied to the Office of the President, justified their request on Mr Amidu’s failure to complete a single case over the past thirty months.

The Executive Director of ASEPA, Mensah Thompson in an interview with Citi News, recommended the invocation of processes under Article 146 to impeach Mr. Amidu from office.

“In fact since 2018 we have not seen a single productive investigation done by the Office or a single productive prosecution done by the Office of the Special Prosecutor, then why do we still keep Mr Amidu in place,” he said.

He downplayed lack of funding for Mr Amidu’s office as the reason for his inability to effectively function.

In November 2007, the Parliament of Ghana passed a law to establish the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

Martin Amidu was sworn into office as Special Prosecutor in February 2018 by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

His appointment was to ensure independent and non-partisan investigations into corruption cases, as well as prosecute all persons found guilty of corruption in the country.

The Office is mandated to investigate and prosecute cases of alleged corruption and corruption-related offences under the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).

The OSP is also supposed to investigate allegations of corruption and corruption-related offences under the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) implicating public officers, politically exposed persons and persons in the private sector implicated in the commission of the alleged crimes.