Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Tuesday, 10 November 2015
Former Attorney General (AG),
Martin A.B.K. Amidu, has made a sensational claim that the government is
shielding corrupt politicians, especially parliamentarians.
“What nauseates me in the whole
judicial corruption scandal as a not-for-profit anti-corruption crusader is the
posture of the government through the President and the Attorney General in
using the results of its commissioned undercover investigations to detract
attention from the gargantuan political corruption that has engulfed not only
the Government, but the Legislature as well since 2009,” he said.
Mr Amidu’s latest article entitled,
“The Ghanaian Sense of Justice: Corrupt Judges Removed, Corrupt Attorneys
Rewarded and Corrupt Politicians Protected”, copied to the media, is coming in
the wake of the bribery and corruption scandal involving some 34 judges and
about 100 Judicial Service staff compiled by undercover journalist Anas
Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye PI team.
Mr Amidu challenged Anas to
publish all the video clips unedited, a statement the investigative journalist
has rubbished.
“We have read with particular horror, portions of that
letter in which he (Amidu) claims that our undercover investigation that led to
the judicial corruption exposé was commissioned by the Government of Ghana;
that we engaged in selective reporting of edited findings on the judicial
corruption exposé and that we have conducted and suppressed investigations into other arms of
government. These are untrue,” Anas said in a statement issued late yesterday
in reaction.
Government Project
Martin Amidu, who has come to be
known as Citizen Vigilante for his anti-corruption exploits, posited that the
investigation by Anas was commissioned by the government and also claimed that the
results of a similar effort to expose corruption in the legislature had been
suppressed by the government.
“I have said that the undercover
investigation that led to the judicial corruption expose was commissioned by
the Government of Ghana and has its genesis in the acrimonious relationship
between the Government and the Judiciary on the assumption of power in 2009 by
the Government and the constant demand by the Judiciary for proof of judicial
corruption from Government and its associates,” Amidu stated.
He further explained: “I was
Presidential Advisor on Legal Affairs in the second half of 2009. I was
Minister for the Interior in 2010 and the Attorney General in 2011 before I
left office in 2012. I therefore know what I am talking about.
“What I did not know was that
the method of exposing corruption in the judiciary and parliament was going to
be through commissioning covert anti-corruption preneurs as government agents
(to secretly collaborate with established security agencies) to allow for
possible deniability.”
He also said, “But I do not
think that the late President Mills intended to suppress the results of the parliamentary
corruption investigation by compromising it and using only the results of the
judicial corruption investigations to damnify the judiciary, knowing quite well
that whatever results to be obtained will only be the tip of the ice berg.”
Criminal Conspiracy
Citizen Vigilante accused
President John Mahama of engaging in what he called ‘criminal conspiracy and
unconstitutional conduct’ by being selective in the government’s approach to
deal with corrupt public officials when politicians most especially are
indicted in investigative reports.
“Unfortunately, Prof Mills died
before his commission could be fulfilled and his successor, John Dramani
Mahama, has chosen to use the results selectively and to suppress other
results, particularly the parliamentary one which video is ready, available to
the Government and has with its permission been viewed secretly by the leadership
of one branch of Government which is pleased to participate in the criminal
conspiracy and unconstitutional conduct of suppressing it from the public to
protect its image.
“I refuse to condone such
conduct and write in exercise of my right to freedom of speech and to defend
the Constitution under Article 3 thereof.”
Suppressing Truth
Mr Amidu said sarcastically that
“The Government ought to be congratulated for its ingenuity in being able to
suppress part of the truth and to turn the displeasure of public anger away
from political corruption to only judicial corruption and to take all the
credit.
“The ingenuity, however, becomes
farcical when the Attorney General grants immunity and protection to
entrepreneurial Government commissioned undercover agents who collaborate with
established security agencies as independent whistleblowers under the
Whistleblowers Act 2006 (Act 720) and contrary to the prohibition of the Police
Service (Private Security Organisations) Regulations, 1992 (L.I. 1571).”
He continued: “Truth will always
stand no matter how long it takes for it to come to light. Already tongues are
wagging like mine because a secret ceases to be a secret when it is between
more than two persons, let alone when you announced it to a multitude at a closed-door
meeting.”
Mills’ Wishes
The former AG said it was in the
interest of the petitioners who are seeking to remove the ‘corrupt’ judges “to
ensure that the wishes of the late Prof. Mills are carried out to the full
before providence reveals them as a for-profit anti-corruption preneurs
(collaborating with established security agencies) without any integrity
themselves.”
According to him, “An anti-corruption
activist or journalist must be a man of the highest integrity himself! He
cannot be a government agent under any excuse!”
Wanton Propaganda
“I have been silent all this
while because of what I know and have learnt from intelligence both closed and
open sources, but I cannot continue to be mute in spite of the propaganda
intended to deceive Ghanaians and render nugatory our fight against all forms
of corruption, particularly political corruption, which as the Woyome and
Isofoton cases show, runs into millions of dollars and cedis.
“Let the judiciary be exposed
but it is unjust to hide the other evidence of corruption obtained by the same
anti-corruption preneurs. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Now,
I have had my say and I am as usual ready for the intimidations, covert
burglaries and threatened assassinations or assassination. Truth stands!” he
added.
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