Amidu shouldn’t have been in charge of logistics at his office – Professor Kwasi Prempeh

Professor Kwasi Prempeh, the Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) says that Martin Amidu took on too many responsibilities with his decision to take the provision of logistics as well staffing of his office into his hands.

Professor Prempeh said on JoyNews that, Martin Amidu should have been allowed to focus on his core mandate instead of taking on additional responsibilities.

He averred that there needed to be a clear distinction between the administrative duties which should be done by the state and the prosecutorial duties which should have been Amidu’s preserve.

He, therefore, called for reforms that will allow the appointing authority to cater for the things listed above.

Professor Prempeh also downplayed Amidu’s claim that the delay in the release of his appointment letter also affected his work.

“There has to be a standard process in place for how the office is set up and so if that is what we are witnessing, then it calls for reform. We cannot have this process where the person appointed to run an office then becomes the person going about buying and sorting things out in the office,” he said.

“In the operation of the office itself, it was anticipated that if you did not separate the prosecutorial job from the administrative part of the job, you might have a situation where in our culture, you have a person who is given a particular function but spends all their time doing the administrative work,” Prof. Prempeh said.

Martin Amidu resigned following claims of interference and lack of commitment from the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

He stated in his resignation letter that he has been left traumatized by attacks from the government over his report on the corruption risk assessment of the Agyapa Royalties deal.

He said, “The events of 12/11/20 removed the only protection I had from the threats & plans directed at me for undertaking the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions anti-corruption assessment report & dictates that I resign as the Special Prosecutor immediately”.

Amidu in a later interview said that he has received death threats following his resignation and his works on the Agyapa deal.

President Akufo-Addo responded by ordering the IGP to give him a 24-hour security protection.