Has Ghana An Attorney-General & Minister Of Justice?

Can Ghana, at this moment in history, be said to have an Attorney-General who is also the Minister of Justice when there is more than enough evidence that some people have deliberately caused financial loss to the nation running into billions of Ghana cedis yet he won’t be bothered to drag them to court?

Ironically, the motto of the country is ‘Freedom& Justice’ but where is the justice when a goat thief will be jailed seven years while a former state official who has either stolen or deliberately caused the state to lose billions of Ghana cedis to the state is a free man with the guts to call other, thieves?

When Martin Amidu was appointed Attorney-General & Minister of Justice, there was great expectation among Ghanaians that he would pick up from where his predecessor, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, left off and breathe even more life into the several cases of graft, thievery and willfully causing financial loss to the state.

There were just so many cases for the new AG to tackle and many were confident he was fit for the job. There was hope that action will be expedited in the Ghana International Airways case, the Ghana@50 saga, the hotel kufuor scandal, the stealing of state lands and bungalows, the Ya Na, Mobilla and Rocco Frimpong murder cases.

There are even many more cases of causing of financial loss to be unearthed. The evidence is already in the public domain and all that was needed was prosecution. But, alas, the expectations of Ghanaians have been dashed by Martin Amidu on the rock of reality.

It is clear that Martin Amidu sees no evil, hears no evil and therefore will speak no evil as far as the stealing of state money or willfully causing financial loss by NPP apparatchiks is concerned. His major achievements, so far as we are concerned, are reversing the decisions of his predecessor. What is his motive for that? To prove to his employer that his predecessor did a bad job? Every Ghanaians who thought Betty was no good as AG and Minister of Justice must be revising his or her notes by now after the lackluster performance of Martin Amidu. Betty took a lot of bashing from many Ghanaians particularly the press since it was perceived that her pursuit of justice was too slow but what of the current AG? His pursuit of justice is not slow-it has stopped. It is non-existent! Is it not for this reason that the thieves now have the effrontery to call the farm owners, thieves?

During his address to mark the 30th Anniversary of the 31st December Revolt at the National Theatre, Former President Rawlings hit the nail right on the head when he said that “ We have so far failed to correct the several wrongs of the past – the failures of the NPP that we promised to correct. Case after case have been lost in court not because innocent people were being tried, but because we failed miserably to properly investigate before going to court. Now we have lost the moral high ground.”

If this comment is not an indictment on the performance of the current Attorney-General & Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, then we do not know what is. It is a clear verdict of abysmal performance and total failure by the man many once hoped will help Ghana recover its stolen billions.

There is no doubt that NPP officials, while their party was in government, deliberately caused financial loss to the state running into the billions of cedis. The evidence is so visible that an Attorney-General worth his sort will close his eyes and yet prosecute successfully. Yet, the current AG has simply decided not to do anything about it.

For example in the matter of the judgement debts paid as a result of the abrogation of the CAN 2008 stadium project, a lot of noise is deliberately being made by the NPP against the government for paying Alfred Woyome GH ¢41,811,480.59. Let us put that case aside for a while so we can put the matter in the right perspective.

In that same CAN 2008 stadium matter, Waterville, one of the partners in the consortium that won the bid and were given the contract before it was abrogated by the then President Kufuor against the advise of Osafo Maafo sued the state for $36 million.

It was clear to even first year law students that they were going to win the case in court, get the amount they sued for and get the interest as well. Ghana went for consent judgment as in the case of Woyome and offered to pay $25 million. Waterville accepted this amount. The state paid. Who has caused the loss of this staggering amount to the state? Why has Martin Amidu not acted in this regard? Obviously, he does not care.