Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Thursday,
November 12, 2015
Former Attorney General (AG) Martin A.B.K. Amidu, appears to be on
the path of rubbishing the investigative piece compiled by Anas Aremeyaw Anas and
his Tiger Eye PI, which details bribery
and corruption in the judiciary.
Anas and his Tiger Eye PI expose indicted some 34 judges, including
those at the Superior Court who are currently facing impeachment and about 100
Judicial Service staff.
Mr. Amidu, who has come to be known as Citizen Vigilante for his
anti-corruption exploits, is still insisting that the Mahama-led National
Democratic Congress (NDC) administration ‘commissioned’ Anas to investigate the
bribery and corruption allegation, the results of which have sent tongues
wagging.
Anas hit back, describing Mr. Amidu’s claims as false, saying he had
been working independently to expose rot in the country.
Dummy And
Fraudulent Scam
However, the former AG has descended on Anas again in a long
statement and has described the journalist’s Tiger Eye PI as “a dummy and
fraudulent scam on domestic and international public.”
He said, “I had always considered Tiger Eye PI as a private not-for-profit
establishment dedicated to fighting for transparency and accountability in
Ghana. I had no reason to go beyond media and other adulations for it to
investigate its background and legal status, even though I knew Government had
acted on some of its reports.
“First, Tiger Eye PI, which signed the petitions for impeachment and
complaints in the judicial scandal, is not registered in the register of
companies in Ghana as a legal person capable of acting on its own.”
Act 179
He said Section 15(1) of the Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179)
mandatorily requires that: “The last name of the name of a company limited by
shares shall be ‘Limited’” but Tiger Eye PI did not have that.
“The two companies in the register of companies with the same sole
shareholder are Tiger Eye PI Media Limited, (with No. CA-57,545 incorporated on
7th April 2009) and Cobra Eye International Media Limited (with No. CA-57,546
also incorporated on 7th April 2009), both for-profit companies, which might
also be unlawfully operating as private investigation organizations in Ghana
without being licensed and permitted by the Minister of the Interior to carry
on the business of private investigations and to employ any employees for the
purpose in contravention of Regulations 1(1), 5 and 14 of the Police Service
(Private Security Organizations) Regulations 1992 (LI 1571).”
Security
Companies
“Of the 1,034 private security companies licensed by the Minister of
the Interior, only three bear a name beginning with the word “Tiger” as
follows: No 819 - Tiger Security Services Ltd; No.832 - Tiger Force Security
Services Ltd and No 899 - TigerForce Security Services. The dummy Tiger Eye PI
holds itself out unlawfully, fraudulently, and deceptively to the whole world
on its website - tigereyepi.org - as a for-profit company rendering services in
dollars whose objects are different from the incorporated Tiger Eye PI Media
Limited.”
Mr. Amidu said that the “fraudulent and dummy Tiger Eye PI and the
registered Tiger Eye PI Media Limited” appeared to be owned by the same person
and were “politically affiliated to this Government and has been clandestinely
employed and paid by the Government to undertake covert operations not normally
and lawfully undertaken in pursuance of the policing and surveillance powers of
the executive without a warrant issued by the courts in accordance with
existing laws, particularly Sections 29, 30 and 31 of the Security and
Intelligence Agencies Act 1996 (Act 526).”
According to Mr. Amidu, the NDC Government violated Regulations 1
and 14 of the Police Service (Private Security Organizations ) Regulations 1992
(LI 1517) which criminally prohibits anybody from employing an organization not
licensed under the Regulations “in knowingly commissioning and collaborating
with the dummy and fraudulent Tiger Eye PI in this and previous undercover
investigations.”
He stressed that the investigation into judicial corruption was “a
paid enterprise commissioned by the Government after the 2010 Ghana @ 50
acquittals by the High Court; the 2011 misunderstanding arising out of the
symposium organized by the National Commission for Civic Education and the
reaction of the Judicial Service to the allegations of corruption made at that
forum; and the 2011 acquittal of the suspects in the Ya Na murder trial.”
Citizen Vigilante continued, “Contemporaneous with the judicial
corruption investigation, the Government commissioned an investigation into
parliamentary corruption. The fraudulent Tiger Eye PI completed its undercover
investigations for the Government for both the judiciary and parliament, but
has made public only its findings in respect of the judicial corruption
investigations as directed by the Government.”
Anas Parries
Allegation
Anas, in a statement, disputed the claims saying, “We assure Mr.
Amidu and any others who might be thinking like him, that we operate under the
relevant incorporation, registration and licensing under Ghana law.”
He accused Mr. Amidu of “shifting the goal posts” anytime he was
challenged to provide evidence of his claims that it was the Government that
‘commissioned’ Tiger Eye PI to investigate the judiciary.
Among other sentiments, Anas concluded his statement saying, “Mr.
Amidu, you have been a symbol of the anti-corruption fight. The light of your
candle has probably blazed and radiated our path. Kindly rest assured that our
work does not seek, in any way, to dim or diminish your glow and radiance.”
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