Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, has criticised the current occupant of the office, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, over the handling of the case involving the Bono Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC.

In a write-up sighted by GhanaWeb, on September 17, 2025, Martin Amidu asserted that Dr Ayine should not have allowed prosecutors from the Ghana Police Service to handle Abronye’s case.

He argued that ceding politically sensitive cases to police prosecutors exposes the government to a situation that could make it unpopular.

“When the Attorney General cedes his prosecutorial powers to the police to investigate and prosecute citizens without further reference to him in overly sensitive cases, it could be viewed as (sic) a deniability of responsibility by the Attorney General. He may find himself tacitly or intentionally creating martyrs out of suspects seeking martyrdom.

“One of the cardinal principles of the prosecutor is to deprive a suspect seeking martyrdom the chance to achieve his objective. I can give specific examples from the PNDC and NDC eras, when we in the Office of the Attorney General purposefully deprived suspects their desire for martyrdom. No Attorney General must allow the police and inferior courts to mess the government up with cases involving political opponents,” he wrote.

You're a 'canker to the judiciary' - Martin Amidu descends on judge in Abronye's case

Amidu, who is also Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor, further bemoaned the use of national security to go after persons accused of minor crimes, like in the case of Abronye, stressing that it never happened under his tenure as Attorney General.

“Incarcerating persons suspected of misdemeanours and minor felonies at the National Intelligence Bureau’s (NIB) holding cells in cases not being investigated by the NIB, is an abuse of the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution. We never knowingly allowed that to happen under our watch in the Attorney General’s Office when I served there cumulatively over a decade under the PNDC, NDC 1, 2, and three governments,” he said.

He went on to claim that several inappropriate developments have occurred under Dr Ayine’s watch, including the refusal of a Circuit Court judge to grant Abronye bail over a minor offence.

Watch as Abronye is released after meeting bail conditions

According to Amidu, the action of the judge has caused irreparable damage to the image of President John Dramani Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

“Please, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, so many unpleasant things are happening under your watch within the short period you have been the Attorney General. I have, for personal reasons, held my guns in the hope that you would do the needful and leave behind a legacy of respect for democracy, the rule of law, and constitutionalism as the principal legal advisor to this NDC government.

“Judge Samuel Bright Acquah has already done enormous damage to the image of the NDC government under your watch as Attorney General. Currently, nothing you do now can restore that abuse of the rights of the suspects he has denied bail on extra-judicial grounds (sic ), because your office allowed them to happen without vigilance or on grounds of partisan political vindictiveness,” he said.

Read Amidu’s full write-up below:



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