I’ve Not Cleared M&J - AG

Martin Amidu is the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, ghana
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday July 16, 2011.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu has stated categorically that his office has not cleared six ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) bigwigs and one New Patriotic Party (NPP) minister who have been accused of taking bribes from Mabey & Johnson, a United Kingdom based construction firm.

“I am compelled to say in response to the ‘Daily Graphic’ publication that there is no CID report or docket in my office as at the date of the publication under reference which has cleared any seven ex-government functionaries in any alleged M&J saga,” Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu said in a statement yesterday.

Officials of Mabey & Johnson admitted at a Southwark Crown Court, London in 2009 of conspiring to obtain contracts by corruptly influencing politicians in Ghana and Jamaica between 1994 and 1999 to land build-bridging contracts.

The affected NDC gurus are Dr. George Sipa Yankey who resigned as Minister of Health under President John Evans Atta Mills, Kwame Peprah former Finance Minister during Flt. Lt. JJ Rawlings regime, Ahaji Baba Kamara Ghana’s current High Commissioner to Nigeria and Alhaji Amadu Seidu a former MP and until recently Minister of State.

The rest are Brigadier-General Lord Attivor who is currently appointed by President Mills as the Managing Director of Intercity STC and Dr. Ato Quarshie, the Minister of Roads and Transport under JJ Rawlings together with Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Sadique, Minister of Works and Housing in the erstwhile NPP administration.

Mr. Amidu in a news release titled “Re: Mabey & Johnson Saga Seven cleared”, said under the 1992 Constitution, it is the Attorney General who determines whether or not a suspect in a police docket should be charged; a docket be closed for lack of evidence etc; or that further investigations be conducted along lines indicated in the opinion.

He said “the police cannot and will not as professionals direct the Attorney General as to how to perform his constitutional duties as the ‘Daily Graphic’ sought to suggest. I have not received any police report containing the findings quoted in the ‘Daily Graphic’. I have also not endorsed any such findings as the Attorney General of the Republic of Ghana.”


“On 10th June 2011 (after official working hours) I received from the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service a letter No. S.220/SF.1/INVEST /V.2/68 dated 9th June 2011 seeking further and better particulars from my office in the matter of the M&J investigations. This letter is clearly inconsistent with any allegation of a letter from the same source addressed to me clearing any persons of any allegations”, he added.

“I wish to repeat what I said in my press statement in reaction to the “Daily Post” publication which was carried by the print and electronic media on 9th June 2011. “The innuendoes contained in the ….[Daily Graphic] publication do no good to the suspects in the case, Police CID, the office of the Attorney General, the office of the President or the credibility of the eventual resolution of the case.”

“It may be useful if the alleged police CID report or letter referred to in the ‘Daily Graphic’ were published in full so that its content can be verified and investigated against the denials of my office. I feel ashamed and embarrassed at the suspected obvious source of the series of false publications on this matter which seeks to undermine the office of the Attorney General.”

The scandal broke in September 2009 when the new Directors of the firm in a plea-bargain with the UK Serious Fraud Office confessed having bribed government officials in some developing countries, including Ghana in the mid-90s for the award of contracts to them.

To get to the bottom of the allegation, President Mills directed the then Attorney-General, Betty-Mould Iddrisu, to investigate the case. After a trip to London on a fact-finding mission during which she met officials of the UK SFO, the Attorney-General advised that Commissioner for Human Rights & Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) investigate the case. AFAG, a pro-NPP pressure group also dragged the matter before the CHRAJ.

However, before the Commission could begin public hearing of the case, six out of the seven accused persons filed a writ at a High Court challenging the jurisdiction of CHRAJ to investigate the matter claiming Justice Francis Emile Short, who until recently was the Commissioner of CHRAJ, allegedly made prejudicial statements on the case in an interview on Metro TV.

An Accra High Court which sat on the case ruled in favour of the accused persons but on appeal by CHRAJ, the ruling of the High Court was quashed by the Appeals Court.

The accused persons preceded to the Supreme Court for direction and succeeded in getting the highest court of the land to asked CHRAJ to step aside for the law courts to try the case.

The CID of the Ghana Police Service as a result began investigations into the matter by first inviting the accused persons to write their statements and nothing was heard of the controversial matter until pro-NDC Daily Post reported that the AG was sitting on the report followed by state-owned Daily Graphic which also reported that the CID has cleared the seven.