Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Firday November 21, 2014
The Judgement Debt Commission has
reacted angrily to a publication in one of the pro-ruling NDC newspapers that
the former Attorney General Martin A.B.K. Amidu lied to the commission.
According to the commission, the little-know
newspaper ‘The True Spokesman’ in October ran series of publications trying to
run the former AG who is noted for his relentless fight against official
corruption especially in his own party and government.
At a news conference in Accra yesterday,
Dometi Kofi Sorkpor, counsel for the commission condemned the publications with
headlines “Martin Amidu’s gargantuan lies exposed (2)’ as well as “Martin Amidu
goes into hiding after gargantuan lies were exposed.”
“The Commission has noted with great
concern attempts by a section of the press to damage the reputation of the
former Attorney-General & Minister of Justice Mr. Martin Amidu using this
Commission as a conduit, albeit falsely.”
Counsel said the publications purported
to portray that Mr. Amidu petitioned the commission with information “heavily
loaded with falsities and blatant gargantuan lies.”
According to Mr. Sorkpor, “this
Commission does not know how and where the paper gathered this false
information,” adding “the commission wants to state emphatically that it was
not Mr. Amidu who brought to the notice or attention of the commission the
judgment entered in favour of Gbewaa Civil Engineering Co. & Yakubu Adam Kasule
as a result of a purported 'Terms of
Settlement' reached between Mr. Kasule and another former
Attorney-General Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrisu.”
“The issue of the judgment entered in
favour of Yakubu Kasule based on the said 'Terms of Settlement' was one of the
Judgment Debt cases brought to the attention of the commission by the
Attorney-General's Department when the commission requested for records on all
Judgment Debts entered against the state from 1992 to date on the inception of
the commission.”
Explaining further, Mr. Sorkpor said the
commission noticed that both Mrs. lddrisu and Mr. Amidu as Attorneys-General
had signed documents concerning the matter; including even some State Attorneys
at the Attorney-General's Department and they needed to verify.
“In line with the Commissions mandate,
the Commission invited the two former Attorney-General's and other State
Attorney's who had something to do with the cases involving Gbewaa Civil
Engineering & its Managing
Director Adam Kasule to provide answers to some questionnaire sent to them.”
He said the Acting Solicitor-General was
also invited to brief the commission on the matter adding “the fact that Mr.
Amidu and Mrs. Mould Iddrisu were not invited to publicly face the cameras does
not mean that the issue has been swept under the carpet.”
He also said that the fact that the
Judgment entered in favour of Mr. Kasule &
his company is that of a court of competent jurisdiction did not mean
that it automatically fell outside the mandate of the commission.
“The commission is looking into all
Judgment Debts and Akin Matters from 1992 to date. The Judgment in favour of
Mr. Kasule is therefore one of such cases and this commission shall issue a
report on it.”
He said it was not all the cases that
witnesses were made to appear publicly before the Commission saying “where the
documents before the commission were clear and unambiguous, the commission did
not invite anybody to appear publicly to explain issues.”
This happened in several of the cases
considered by this Commission including the Woyome case, which this Commission
is going to report on.
Mr. Sorkpor advised the media to ensure
that it did not use the commission as a 'conduit' to “advance the personal
interests of anybody.”
"The True Spokesman should note that what
it is doing constitutes contempt of this Commission. It should therefore bring
to halt these false publications. On the other hand, if the paper has an agenda
it wants to advance, it should not draw this commission into it to avoid the
unpalatable.”
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