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Opinions of Wednesday, 24 July 2019

Columnist: Isaac Ato Mensah

Time for Martin Amidu to resign on principle

Martin Amidu, Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu, Special Prosecutor

Martin A.B.K. Amidu, the Special Prosecutor (SP), has had his say in his first published article since he got the job.

The message is clear; he is being frustrated.
Our unsolicited advice; he should pack his personal files and walk.

Amidu is strong willed and determined but perhaps the current situation has rendered his mission a bridge too far.

Let us read carefully the first paragraph of his latest article published 16 July, 2019 on martinamidu.com.

“The biggest challenge facing the Office of the Special Prosecutor as an anti-corruption investigatory and prosecutorial body in spite of all the powers conferred upon it is not the President who promised the people of Ghana to establish the Office but the heads of institutions who simply refuse to comply with laws designed to ensure good governance and to protect the national purse by fighting corruption.”

Why the attempt to suggest that POTROG is out of the picture?

Who appointed those public officials?

Was the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill initially not presented to Parliament through a Certificate of Urgency?

Was this not done because, during the 2016 campaign, Akufo-Addo had promised to establish the SP’s office within six months?

When he became president, did Akufo-Addo not tell the nation that he had been slow in getting the full complement of his team because he wanted to appoint competent persons who also had “integrity” and therefore we should be patient with him?

Has the office of the SP not been in existence for more than 12 months already?

If those appointees now – not those who were accused of corruption and sacked – are “deliberately initiating parallel investigations” to frustrate you, then should you waste your time on anybody in there?

Was it not President Akufo-Addo who said, “I am in a hurry”?

Please stick to your principles; do not look at any personality, president or labourer. Leave them alone.

With all the security and intelligence gathering agencies in every village in Ghana under his command, we are told the president knows the problems of Ghana more than those of us writing “Nkwasiasem” (to wit, nonsense).

In any case, what has POTROG done within the last seven days since Amidu came public with his frustrations?

As my mentor once quoted from Edmond Alexis Rostand.
“But a man does not fight merely to win.
No – no – better to know one fights in vain.
…..I know them now. My ancient enemies – Falsehood! Prejudice! Compromise! Vanity!
Surrender?
No!”

No do not surrender the fight but walk away from this entangling web “discreetly”, as my mentor advises.

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