By William
Yaw Owusu
Wednesday
August 08, 2018
Special Prosecutor,
Martin A.B.K. Amidu, has revealed that National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member
of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central and former Environment Minister, Mahama
Ayariga, is allegedly blocking attempts by his office to investigate him.
The former Attorney
General said Mahama Ayariga, whom he described as ‘suspect,’ is using
influential personalities like chiefs, pastors (men of God), personal friends, and
former colleagues, among others, to persuade him (Amidu) to drop the criminal investigations
against him.
Mr Ayariga is said
to have imported a number of cars into the country without paying appropriate
taxes, causing financial loss to the state.
Mr Amidu, therefore,
filed a complaint before the Economic and Organized Crime Organization (EOCO)
against the NDC MP, who is always loud on radio but appears to have gone silent
of late, for the alleged interference in the investigations.
Vehicle Importation
“The preliminary investigations pertained to
the importation into Ghana through corrupt means and corruption-related
activities of three used white Toyota Land Cruiser V8 vehicles by using a
Parliamentary Resolution dated 7th April 2017 contracting a facility of $22,
500, 000 between the Parliamentary Service and the Societe Generale Bank
(Ghana) which was for the purchase of one brand new official vehicle for each
of the 275 Members of Parliament,” Mr. Amidu explained in a statement to EOCO.
EOCO Notice
In June, EOCO issued
a public notice to owners/drivers of vehicles with registration number GR 2220-18,
GR 2221-18, GR 2222-18, all Land Cruisers, as well as GR 2243-17, Toyota Camry and GT 4054 Nissan,
to report to the anti-graft body on June 20 at 11 am.
It is, however, looking
increasingly clear that the listed vehicles are the same as the subject-matter
of the Martin Amidu investigation.
Speaker’s Notice
It is now turning
out that a letter the Special Prosecutor wrote to the Speaker of Parliament and
copied to the MP to request that he (Ayariga) submits himself for questioning
rather became an ‘obstacle.’
Mr. Amidu said Mr Ayariga
has allegedly been using influential persons to beg him (Amidu) to back down on
the probe.
“The suspect refused
to report to the offices of EOCO in Accra as demanded by a publication on page
26 of the Daily Graphic of 20th June,
2018 with vehicle numbers GR 2220-18, GR 2221-18, GR 2222-18, GT 2243-17 and GT
4054-13, consequently, it fell on me to write to the Speaker of Parliament with
a copy to Honourable Mahama Ayariga (the suspect) in my letter dated 26th June
2018 to release the suspect to report to the EOCO on 3rd July, 2018,” the
Special Prosecutor said.
“When the suspect,
Honourable Mahama Ayariga, received his copy of my letter to the Speaker, he
immediately started to get people who he perceived could put pressure on me
(such as personal friends, former colleagues, chiefs, men of God etc.) to abate
the investigation being conducted in the performance of my functions under Acts
959 and Act 804,” he added.
Mr. Amidu further
added that despite cautions through EOCO to Mahama Ayariga to refrain from
trying to obstruct investigations, Ayariga persisted with getting people close
to him (Amidu) to get the inquiry abated.
Mr. Amidu said on
August 3, 2018 he officially reported the matter to EOCO and asked it to
investigate the complaint of obstruction of the investigation by Mahama
Ayariga.
“I asked EOCO on a
number of occasions to warn the suspect to desist from his conduct of
obstructing the investigation by soliciting others to put pressure on me to
abate same to no avail….I accordingly,
on 3rd August 2018, requested EOCO to investigate my complaint against the
suspect for obstructing me, the Special Prosecutor, in the performance of the
functions of my office as the Special Prosecutor,” the statement said.
Mr. Amidu advised so-called
influential personalities, who are in the habit of interceding on behalf of
suspects, to desist from the act.
“I will not tolerate
any interference or obstruction from anybody or organ of Government other than
the courts of law in the performance of the independent functions of my office
even if the culprit were my only brother,” he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment