President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
To begin understanding this story, let us concentrate on the meaning of and then later the functions of a prosecutor. Well, a prosecutor is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a public official who prosecutes someone; e.g. a barrister or a lawyer who conducts the case against the defendant.
As an assumption, the defendant here is ex-President John Mahama. The Special Prosecutor conducts a case against him.
The investigation of John Mahama itself though should be done by the police3 or the CID; the results shall then be sent to the State Attorney and finally the results sent to the Special Prosecutor.
If the Special Prosecutor detects a crime this will be presented to court.
What I have described here is exactly what Prof. H. Akwasi Prempeh has stated:
“It was not within the remit of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to decide whether or not former President John Mahama should be prosecuted for alleged corruption in the Airbus purchase deal.”
According to Prof. Prempeh, whilst in office, Mr. Amidu was faced with a dilemma over the political standing of John Mahama, he had no power to halt prosecution without seeking legal advice from the Attorney General. This notion is wrong for no-one is above the law.
The behaviour of the OSP Mr. Amidu constitutes an obstruction of justice. He must therefore be prosecuted now, before the elections !
Prof. Prempeh stated further:
“I think that is a political call that ought not to be made by the Special Prosecutor.”
My problem with what Prof. Prempeh was saying here is that he states that he has seen clearly that Mr. Amidu has committed a crime and did not as a concerned citizen call the attention of the CID. It is not too late for the matter to be referred to CID.
The reply of Mr. Amidu is repugnant and nauseating, to say the least.
He averted in § 34 the following:
“I heard and read Dr. Henry K. Prempeh […]”
(please note, he did not write Prof. Prempeh, but rather Dr.),
“[...] the Executive Director of the CCD Ghana, peddle the same falsehoods.”
You have repeated in your paragraph 10 on Joy FM which was reported on 14th November 2020 on line under the title:
“Airbus Scandal: Martin Amidu had no excuse not to prosecute Mahama”
What we are talking about is the function and limitation of Mr. Amidu in his office. What the President might have said is irrelevant, the President is a president. He, Mr. Amidu should have acted according to his functions, that means he should have referred the case to the police or Attorney General.
My conclusion is that Mr. Amidu has failed bitterly and has probably on top caused an obstruction of justice. I shall inform the leadership of our party, the National Democratic Party, to discuss this issue. Also, I think someone in Ghana has to inform the police of this crime, or else Mr. Amidu has succeeded in perverting the course of justice.
Again: A crime is a crime and no-one is above the law. If Mr. Amidu knew that ex-President Mahama has committed a crime, the upshot is prosecution after the Attorney General has studied the case and concluded that a crime has been committed, or else he has as stated above perverted the course of justice. The State Attorney must act now !
The whole case of the Agyapa deal is a great embarrassment and should have been prevented, but that is another topic.
The Finance Minister, Mr. Ofori-Atta should step down, he is not a politician but rather a bureaucrat. He has forever damaged the image of the President. What we are talking about is when the whole scandal started, but why, oh, why ? The extent of Mr. Ofori-Atta’s greed knows no limit ?
No-one has to brief the chairman of the National Security Council as to why the investigation had to be held in abeyance till after the election and he consented to it.
The resignation of Mr. Amidu was overdue. That he did not get his appointment letter is pure negligence. But this is not a crime and at best he could have written to ascertain what is wrong. This he did not do and he is to blame. Not receiving an appointment letter is wrong but not a crime.
I would like the readers to realize how this Mr. Amidu is not only a fake lawyer but also an exceptionally deceptive personality, whose intention I suspect was purely to discredit the sitting President Akufo-Addo and his legal advisers, the Chief of Staff and his Executive Secretary, who is also a lawyer, who were looking on.
Three people failed Akufo-Addo:
1. The Chief of Staff
2. Nana Bediatuo, his Executive Secretary,
3. the OSD, Mr. Amidu.
What is the whole thing about ?
1) Mr. Amidu is cited to have claimed that Mr. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was being “a judge in his own case”
2) Mr. Amidu accused the President of the Republic of Ghana of politically interfering with his probe into the Agyapa deal.
3) Mr. Amidu said:
“More importantly your excellency was acting as a judge in your own court, in usurping my functions to take any independent follow-up actions on the anti-corruption assessment report when you president knew from my 13 page letter of 16th October 2020, conveying the conclusions of the anti-corruption assessment report to you that negative anti-corruption assessment had been made against the conduct of your office in the procedure adopted in granting executive approval dated 24th March 2020 and your assent of the Minerals Income Investment (Amendment) Act 2020 (Act 1024) on 27th August 2020 intended to retroactively impact the parliamentary approval of the transactions document granted on 14th August 2020.”
Well, this long blah blah from Mr. Amida did not require an extensive reply, because
a) Mr. Amidu did not legally have any right to do any probe into the Agyapa deal.
b) If the Agyapa deal is a crime he must refer this crime to the investigating bodies, i.e. the police or the CID.
The investigating bodies then in turn will refer the case to the Attorney General who in case in Ghana at the same time the Minister of Justice.
c) After their investigation and only then, as explained at the beginning of this article, the case can be referred to Mr. Amidu for preparations to prosecute.
d) Thus the case has been properly and thoroughly investigated and will be sent to court, if any criminal intent is found or punishable offence is discovered.
4) To instead accuse the President of interference per se disqualifies him as a lawyer and a civil servant for the state.
In “Guide to the Law” by John Pritchard, pp. 645 to 647, he laid down clearly the procedures, see trial in the Magistrate court and most importantly trial in Crown Court.
The by principle and definition false accusations against a sitting President must be vehemently rejected and denounced as they are unbefitting a civil servant and an attack on the institutions of the State, here the Office of the President, which Mr. Amidu has sworn to protect.
It is fundamentally unacceptable to send the report to our President instead of working together with the Attorney General. A criminal case belongs to the Attorney General's Office, even in Tamale, where Mr Amidu comes from, this is still the case.
The Executive Secretary of the President has erred as well by accepting this tainted Report.
The reply from Mr. Nana Bediatuo, that
“this is the unkindest out of all”
is just wrong. The Report should have been shredded and sent back to him in Tamale. That is at least what I, Kwame Poku, would have done.
The Agyapa Deal
The Agyapa deal is, to say the least, an extremely unfortunate case that must be immediately resolved. Transparency International writes:
“Given the sector's strategic importance it is beyond curious that Ghana is proposing to sell almost 76 % of its future receipts from Gold royalties to a special corporate vehicle in the British overseas territory of Jersey – a known tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction.”
I do not (yet) see any wilful intent to cheat the sovereign Ghana, while it appears that significant strategic resources would have been removed from control by the legislative body.
Therefore this financial arrangement is unwise and the National Democratic Party recommends that the architect of what looks like an act of corruption of the highest degree, should be asked to resign.
His actions have posed a threat to the equilibrium, the stability of our institutions, our survival as a nation itself. These are not hollow words; this is the shocking reality we live in right now.
Once this is done we owe it to our future generations, who - make no mistake - will watch this episode of their history closely, to investigate the issue thoroughly as well as with limited emotional dramatization in order to find new ways and procedures and build and re-build structures and institutions to prevent such a thing from happening again.
Searching for the Motive of Mr. Amidu
So, what is the motive of Mr. Amidu, who has broken protocol and thus muddied the waters for an actual independent inquiry of the issues ?
As we have established what should and what should not have been done, with mistakes on both sides, we cannot believe nor trust no ulterior motive exists.
Also, as we are nearing Election time and there are provisions in all constitutional democracies all over the world to prevent such surprise claims to be presented too close to an election to prove or disprove allegations against a contender in an upcoming election, the list of possible motives for such behaviour is very short.
We suspect voter manipulation. It is quite plausible that Mr. Amidu, who had plenty of time before and after the election to come forward chose this time and this method to favour the NDC-Flagbearer, perhaps out of tribalism. The plot is to look for an issue for detraction, a fault to discredit President Akufo-Addo in favour of his contender Mr. Mahama, who like Mr. Amidu comes from the North and is a NDC-member.
This goes much further, though. While effectively preventing justice against both parties, ex-President Mahama as well as President Akufo-Addo, he has positioned himself – to the ill-informed – as Mr. Clean. He can now, after the quite obvious defeat of Mr. Mahama in the upcoming elections, who as a consequence will undoubtedly lose his position in the NDC, become the next party leader and flagbearer, running on a ticket against corruption and having a chance of winning the Presidency, as Akufo-Addo ends his last term and the Agyapa deal hangs unresolved over the ruling party, NPP.
There are other things to consider, though. Stability, for one, as we are going to face a future with more frequent pandemics, floodings, terrorist attacks and other destabilizing problems. Unity is important in order to achieve this, because – as we have recently seen – only unified and concerted actions will help us survive, overcome and thrive.
Now, Mr. Bawumia is also from the North, so in the absence of the President Mr. Bawumia leads NPP. Two Northerners at the helm of affairs in our country ? God forbid.
This is not the balance we need for unity and stability.
I recommend that the President keep to his promise to renew his pledge of Referendum, leading to devolution.
No Northerner shall hold any political office in Ashanti and vice versa and all the financial resources of the Regions shall be at the disposal of the people of the Regions.
Kumasi is drowned in chaos and filth. The assassinations, the kidnappings are hell. We’ve had enough of that.
I recommend Mrs. Rawlings to replace Mr. Bawumia or Mr. Kyerematin.
Please, Mr. President, we promise to help defend you for a good job done.
