You're a 'gargantuan failure', you can't break Akufo-Addo - Kwamena Duncan replies Martin Amidu

Kwamena Duncan, former Central Regional Minister, has fired shots at the former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu over his recent article regarding President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Mr. Martin Amidu resigned as Special Prosecutor (SP) last year after accusing President Nana Akufo-Addo of interfering in his work and also acting unconstitutionally.

Following his long silence and break from public view, Mr. Amidu has bounced back with article seeking to vindicate himself over claims that the incumbent Attorney General (AG), Godfred Dame, has levelled some allegations against him.

Mr. Amidu, in an article headlined ''THE MPs DOUBLE SALARY CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DOCKET WAS HANDLED BY THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND NEVER BY MARTIN AMIDU AS SPECIAL PROSECUTOR: BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU'', made references to AG's allegations and clarified issues to the public in an attempt to clear his name and reputation.

Article

Mr. Amidu writes; ''On 17th May 2021, a friend called my attention to the fact that he had heard a radio discussion on Oman FM in which I was being blamed for the Government’s inability to prosecute the Members of Parliaments’ double salary case which the Office of the Attorney General had allegedly transferred to my office for prosecution, and I had failed or refused to prosecute same before my resignation. This was certainly a deliberate and knowing concoction of fake news from the newly minted Office of the Attorney General to assassinate my integrity and character.

The politically inspired propaganda against my integrity which sought to link my resignation to the failure or refusal of this irredeemably corrupt Government for four whole years to deal with the simple offence of double salary or stealing (as the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police Service put it), are false, infantile and barefaced lies intentionally concocted and put out by the Office of the Attorney-General to the unsuspecting public under the sub-heading “Godfred Yeboah-Dame.” The effigy of the Attorney-General published alongside the concocted falsehoods of me resigning without prosecuting a case which was never handled by my office during my tenure as the Special Prosecutor demonstrates how shamefully low the hitherto respected ethical Office of the Attorney-General which I had the privilege of serving in for over fourteen years of my career has descended into since 7th January 2021.

Throughout my tenure as the Special Prosecutor, the respected former Attorney General, Ms. Gloria Akuffo, never referred this case to me for further investigation or prosecution. Any experienced and ethical person who has ever occupied the office of Deputy Minister of Justice under the Constitution knows that the Attorney General never sends a docket to another independent investigatory or prosecutorial agency without a covering letter forwarding the docket with requisite instructions or requests.

Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame, the young and inexperienced Attorney General should know now that he is the Attorney General that there are no records in his office or the Director of Public Prosecution’s office showing that the Attorney-General, Ms. Gloria Akuffo, old enough to be Mr. Dame’s mother, sent any docket on this case to me as Special Prosecutor to prosecute. No such letter was ever received by me when I was the Special Prosecutor, and no records exists in the Office of the Special Prosecutor of receipt of such a letter or docket from Ms. Gloria Akuffo.''

Mr. Amidu also accused the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of blackmailing the Members of Parliament.

President's Alleged Blackmail Of MPs

Under the sub-heading “Akufo-Addo ‘blackmailing’ NDC double salary MPs to do his bidding – Joy”, he wrote:

''In researching this rejoinder article I came across a news report by mynewsgh.com on Ghana Web dated 31st March 2021 with the heading: “Akufo-Addo ‘blackmailing ‘ NDC double salary MPs to do his bidding – Joy” which underpins the diversionary political propaganda being undertaken by the Office of the Attorney General and the Daily Guide Network. Mr. Jacob Osei Yeboah is reported to have asked a rhetorical question about what is happening in Parliament and answered as follows:

“What’s Happening in the 8th Hung Parliament? Nana Addo is holding the balls of key double salary NDC’s MPs in the 8th Hung Parliament. You all know that when a man’s balls are being squeezed, his mind and actions are incoherently bizarre. So NDC rank and file be calm and understand Gen. Mosquito and Elders. .. NDC is now on Political Dialysis in the 8th Hung Parliament whilst Nana Addo keeps on squeezing the balls of all double salary NDC’s MPs and corrupt high ranking members intermittently. Can NDC survive till 2024?…

My resignation as the first Special Prosecutor was the result of the endemic attitude of President, Nana Akufo Addo’s penchant to usurp the constitutional authority of investigators and prosecutors in criminal justice administration as he tried to do in the Agyapa Royalties Transaction Anti-Corruption Risk Assessment Report implicating him.

My old school ethics and integrity as a lawyer of more than four decades standing guided me to resist the President’s unconstitutional interference and resigned my office instead of being his poodle. It had nothing to do with the Members of Parliament double salaries which I never saw nor handled during my tenure. The President’s responses to the media on 13th December 2018 is evidence, if evidence be needed, that this President determines who may be prosecuted for crime and not the Attorney General or Special Prosecutor as his pronouncements on the Members of Parliament double salaries amply demonstrates. God save Ghana from Corruption under this regime. Ghana First!''

Kwamena Duncan's Reaction

After perusing Mr. Amidu's article, Kwamena Duncan has come to the conclusion that he (Martin Amidu) is ''bordering on diminished capacity''.

'You input wrongdoings to a President and your basis is that my information within Parliamentary NDC and the Executive. This is your basis for inputting wrongdoing that, now, the President has assumed that unconstitutional posture and usurped the authority of the Attorney General...Amazing! You've been a Deputy Minister or for maybe Deputy Secretary at the time, later Deputy Minister and then substantive Minister, occupy this high office especially couched in the constitution," he further blasted Mr. Amidu.

He warned Mr. Amidu that he can neither destroy President Nana Addo's reputation nor cause him to become unpopular.

''I thought that those who are lawyers, when they speak to you, that before they proceed; they must have something on which to put something that you cannot put something on anything. How do you speak this way? A person of your stature that, to the extent, this entire country even had some trust in you; the President had the trust to appoint to this special office. I see that this is all a way just to cover his gargantuan failure and he was indeed a failure. When he came into office, all that he did was to write epistles and engaging people. The people of Corinth and Philip had their shares. It's just amazing''

"Nobody can break that aura around Akufo-Addo. Akufo-Addo in his private life, in his public life; as a Foreign Minister didn't collect per diem. He used his own cars throughout. He lived in his own house all throughout. You cannot destroy who God has blessed...we will not treat this with even the very low glory."

He delivered these comments on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme.