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| Amidu Sacked - New Statesman vindicated |
1/22/2012 |
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Mr Martin Amidu has lost his job as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice after President John Evans Atta-Mills sacked him, six days after the New Statesman broke the story.
The Statesman online, last Friday revealed that President Mills asked for the Mr Amidu’s resignation or be pushed out of office after a crucial meeting with leading members of both the party [NDC] and government which concluded that the explosive press release by the A-G has made his position untenable.
In giving further details to the Friday the 13th meeting, the Wednesday, 18th January, edition of the New Statesman revealed that Mr Martin Amidu told President Mills point blank that he would not resign his position and the only way he could be gotten rid of was by Mills sacking him.
Mr Amidu further insisted to the President, and senior NDC functionaries gathered at the meeting, that he had done nothing wrong to warrant his resignation and told President Mills he could exercise his prerogative to sack him.
According to Martin Amidu, President Mills was happier listening to those who said Woyome had done no wrong and that the fault was with NPP.
Mr Amidu’s response, obviously, did not go down well with the President and the NDC functionaries gathered at last Friday’s meeting, as is shown in his dismissal letter.
“The decision [to sack Mr Amidu] is as a result of Mr Amidu’s misconduct at a meeting last Friday, January 13th, 2012 presided over by His Excellency. Mr Amidu’s behaviour is incompatible with acceptable standards expected of Ministers and Appointees of the President,” the dismissal letter read.
In an interview with the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Asare Otchere-Darko, he asked, “So what was the misconduct”?
According to Asare Otchere-Darko of DI, who spoke to this paper on the telephone, "for the President to sack his Attorney-General for alleged misconduct is a most peculiar charge bearing in mind that it was the same A-G who publicly stated that another member of the President''s cabinet has been misconducting him/herself by seeking to pervert the cause of justice allegedly to conceal a crime of gargantuan proportions."
“I think this case is only beginning and every step of the government on this matter appears tantamount to being in quick sand and struggling to get out with obvious repercussions of sinking deeper,” Gabby added.
In Gabby’s opinion, some basic questions need to be asked:
1. Is the President telling us that there is no truth in his former A-G''s unsolicited public statement implicating an unnamed minister in a cover-up in this controversial Woyome payment?
2. Does the President accept the substantial integrity matter which his sacked A-G was pursuing alleging that Woyome effectively defrauded the state with this payment claim?
3. If so, then how grievous could this misconduct be to warrant the dismissal of an Attorney-General who seems to have won huge public support for taking the fight against corruption to the alleged criminals without fear or favour?
4. The obvious question: So what was the nature of this misconduct? And, finally,
5. What does this say about the President''s commitment to the fight against corruption?
In the view of Gabby, the President made a false start with his voluntary interview on Radio Gold where "he went out of his way to defend Alfred Woyome to opine that Mr Woyome was wronged and that the court had to be right to award him that level of compensation."
Again, the head of DI said "it was very strange to hear the President saying at his press conference that he did not know the details of his own Attorney-General''s pending writ in the high court asking for the payment judgment to be set aside. Strange because this was such a serious national matter and for the President to admit that he had very little interest in the details of his own government''s case in court against the very payment that he, himself, had defended some three weeks earlier, gave the unfortunate impression that the President did not, in fact, support the case that his own A-G had filed in court against the Woyome payment."
Gabby said the sacking of Martin Amidu has made the case for President Mills worse.
"I can''t see how the President can now push back the growing suspicions of a grand cover-up in this matter. This has very much brought his commitment to fighting corruption into doubt. This is a case that has footprints leading to the Castle, considering the shoddily and jittery manner that the Castle has responded to it and continues to respond to it. It creates the very worrying prospect that the Castle has something to hide and it is determined to hide it, no matter the casualties such a venture would leave in its wake. It is far from over," said Mr Otchere-Darko who spoke to us from London, UK.
Mr Amidu is currently enjoying tremendous support from the Rawlingses, supporting persisting rumours that he has been working a possible electoral pact with Mrs Rawlings in the event of the NDC having to go into an emergency congress to choose another presidential candidate for 2012.
In Mr Amidu’s explosive press release, the government’s legal officer accused another cabinet member of perverting the cause of justice in an attempt to cover up “gargantuan crimes” against Ghana.
The Alliance for Accountable Governance, in a statement copied to the New Statesman, expressed shock at the dismissal of the A-G at a time that he had demonstrated the tenacity to fight corruption from within and without
AFAG, according to the statement, the Presidency and the President’s sole aim is to actively connive with some Ministers to conceal the gargantuan crime and corruption against the people of Ghana.
In a related development, yesterday’s edition of the Daily Graphic carrying the banner headline, “Amidu Floored” has been described by political analysts as a pathetic attempt on the part of the Mills-Mahama NDC administration to cast a slur on the integrity of Mr Amidu. “Sensing that public was on the side of Mr Amidu in this whole saga, Government decides to paint Mr Amidu black through the use of the Daily Graphic. Why would somebody who claims to have rejected the A-G position on four different occasions suddenly be begging not to be dismissed,” a political commentator told the New Statesman
Below is the dismissal letter:
His Excellency Prez John Evans Atta Mills has with immediate effect, relieved Mr Martin Amidu of his post as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.
The decision is as a result of Mr Amidu’s misconduct at a meeting last Friday, January 13th, 2012 presided over by His Excellency. Mr Amidu’s behaviour is incompatible with acceptable standards expected of Ministers and Appointees of the President. The letter conveying the President’s decision to relieve Mr Amidu of his post thanked him for services rendered to the country as member of his government.
Meanwhile, the President has directed the Minister for the Interior, Hon Benjamin Kunbour, to take temporary responsibility for the Ministry of Justice until a substantive minister is appointed.
The President has further directed the acting Minister to continue the prosecution of all government cases currently before the court including the Alfred Woyome case.
Signed by
John Martey Newman,
Chief of Staff,
Office of the President, Castle, Osu
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