JUDGEMENT DEBT WHITE PAPER IS COVER UP - AMIDU

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Former Attorney General (AG) Martin A.B.K. Amidu, says President John Mahama has decided to persecute his political opponents.

“KT Hammond is ordered to be investigated by EOCO for      $900,000.00 while Hon Ebo Barton Odro (now 1st Deputy Speaker of Parliament of the NDC) goes free after an unauthorized payment of GH¢4,159,101.38.

“ What Ghanaian sense of justice is this than protecting card bearing members of the NDC while hounding mercilessly and dealing with political opponents whose fundamental rights and freedoms are also guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution?” he wondered.

Mr. Amidu, who has come to be known as Citizen Vigilante for his anti-corruption exploits, was critiquing the recent Government White Paper issued following the report of the Commission of Enquiry that was tasked to investigate the payment of various frivolous judgment debts between 1992 till date.

Propaganda White Paper

He said the White Paper on the work of the Sole-Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau of the Supreme Court, was going to be used by President Mahama and his team to run down its political opponents.

The former AG preferred to term it “the NDC government’s political manifesto White Paper for election 2016,” saying, “A perusal of the White Paper leaves one in no doubt that it is in fact another election 2016 NDC Manifesto No. 2 to suppress political corruption against the Government and its supporters arising from the very clear and lucid report of the Sole Judgment Debt Commissioner.”

He said, “When I call this unconstitutional conduct on the part of the NDC which is now deviating from core values, (and of which I am a foundation member), I am insulted with approval from the presidency in a democracy.

“I wish to ask once more what the methodology was for sampling the cases to be commented upon in the Manifesto White Paper so we can replicate them to see whether the selection was not ad hoc to condemn political opponents to deflect public criticism from the Government’s gargantuan political corruption.”

Massive Cover-up

Mr Amidu noted, “Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Ebo Barton Odro, Benjamin Kumbour, (the now Minister of Defence who staged his own assassination and was exposed by the Ghana Police Service) are all indicted in the Sole Judgment Debt Commissioner’s report but the Political Manifesto White Paper covers them up.

“Can the public be told the rational grounds for choosing my cases which the Supreme Court had conclusively disposed of, and those involving the NPP flagbearer and KT Hammond, a leading NPP Member of Parliament, for extensive unconstitutional comments while ignoring the Government’s own ministers, 1st Deputy Speaker of Parliament and other officials?”

Extraneous Matters

He described the Sole-Commissioner’s report as lucid and excellent piece of work that did not need any unnecessary amendment but “unfortunately, the Government is playing politics and propaganda with such excellent work by arrogating to itself the power to amend, modify, vary, re-write and even introduce extraneous matters into the report for purely political electioneering purposes.”

He said for instance that in spite of the positions taken by the Supreme Court and in the Sole-Commissioner’s Report on the Amidu versus Attorney-General, Waterville Holding (BVI) Ltd & Woyome case, the Government White Paper has introduced what he called ‘extraneous matters’ into the issue “for purely political electioneering reasons in the coming 2016 elections.”

Impossible Task

Mr. Amidu said that the position of the Government on the White Paper will enable it to “fraudulently explain away the Government’s refusal to enforce the orders of the court against its surrogates to which it unconstitutionally dished out the Republic’s scarce resources.”

He wondered what the Sole Judgment Debt Commissioner’s report has got to do with the assistance the Government is giving to its foreign cronies to flout the orders of the Supreme Court at so-called international arbitral tribunals at which the Government is effectively collaborating to defeat the orders of the court”

“When did the judgment and orders of the Supreme Court of Ghana become subservient to those of international arbitral tribunals?  Since when did the principle that ignorance of a sovereign national constitution is no excuse for anybody to breach any nation’s Constitution become an exception for foreigners investing in Ghana?” he queried.

He said that “Ghanaians cannot allow the government to play politics with the orders of the Supreme Court when it has clearly demonstrated its affinity to the foreign judgment debtors and its reluctance to get our money back.”