Former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, is challenging government to prove that he failed to name people behind the payment of huge sums of illegal judgement debts.
Mr. Amidu in response to a statement by a Deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations, Murtala Mohammed noted that the treatment which was being meted out to him was unfair.
According to Mr Amidu, Murtala Mohammed had alleged that he [Mr Amidu] was dismissed by late President Mills for failing to name the members of his cabinet who were directly involved with the judgement debt saga.
Mr Amidu however insists that contrary to the assertions by the Deputy Information Minister, there is evidence to prove that he provided the names.
RE: WHY MARTIN AMIDU WAS DISMISSED: MARTIN AMIDU’S DENIAL AND CHALLENGE TO THE GOVERNMENT OF GHANA – BY MARTIN AMIDU
I read for the first time in the Ghanaian Times of Tuesday, June 25, 2013 and peacefmonline of yesterday what appears to be a Government approved statement giving particulars of the misconduct for which I was alleged to have been dismissed as Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
Speaking for the Minister for Information, Hon. Mahama Ayarigah, and the Government, the Deputy Minister for Information, Hon Murtala Mohammed is reported as saying that Martin Amidu was dismissed by the late President Mills for failing to mention the names of cabinet ministers in his administration whom he alleged, were directly involved with the judgment debt saga. The Ghanaian Times states that: “Murtala Mohammed stressed that courageous as Martin Amidu is, nothing should have prevented him from telling the late President when he was called at the level of the appointment authority to disclose those who wanted to defraud the nation”.
I have, since the former Chief of Staff Mr. J. H. Newman dishonourably lied to the media in a press release dated 19th January 2012 that I was dismissed for misconduct without giving particulars of my alleged misconduct, challenged him and the Government to publish the particulars of my misconduct. Mr. Newman is now cowardly hiding at the Council of State without supplying the Ghanaian public those particulars.
Joy Online and the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at various times in January 2012 peddled the falsehood that I was sacked or dismissed for “failing to substantiate allegations of ‘gargantuan crimes’ perpetrated against the state by an unnamed colleague.” They did not attribute the statements to any particular source making it difficult for me to respond to them.
Now that the Government through its Ministry of Information has supplied the alleged particulars, I wish to state unequivocally that in letter No D45/SF. 173/10 dated 6th January 2012, entitled “Why the Government of Ghana must be Unequivocally Resolute to set aside the Collaborative or Collusive Default Judgment entered in favour of Alfred Agbesi Woyome in the Case of Alfred Agbesi Woyome v (1) the Attorney-General (2) Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and all Proceedings and Processes commenced by Alfred Agbesi Woyome Against the Republic of Ghana per the Attorney-General”, I reported to the President in detail with the names of all those I suspected of being responsible for the judgment debt Gargantuan crimes against the people of Ghana.
It will be recalled that in several press statements I made to the media in 2012, I called upon Mr. Newman (the Chief of Staff) to publish for the benefit of the good people of Ghana my said letter dated 6th January 2012 to enable them to determine whether or not I had misconducted myself simply by being truthful in defending the 1992 Constitution.
I am, therefore, formally by this statement of rejoinder challenging the Government and the Ministry of Information to publish for the purposes of transparency and accountability my said letter of 6th January 2012 so that the good people of Ghana may judge whether I did not name those I suspected of the judgment debt Gargantuan crimes.
Mr. Newman (then Chief of Staff) and Mr. Beebako-Mensah (Secretary to the President) are no more at the Presidency. But luckily Lt Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (Rtd.), the National Security Coordinator, was a copy addressee of the said letter and was present when Mr. Newman told me that my letter was a political time bomb.
My response was that as Attorney General I had a professional obligation to tell the President the whole truth. The Government should with honour and integrity put this matter to rest by once and for all publishing my said letter dated 6th January 2012 addressed to the Secretary to the President and the Chief of Staff for the attention of then President and copied to the National Security Coordinator.
My said letter also stated clearly who authorized the payments contrary to the rented Daily Posts publication of today 25th June 2013 falsely associating me with it. Let the people of Ghana know where the truth stands in this matter for which I was never issued a query for any misconduct.
The letter appointing me to office gave the Government and I the right to terminate the employment relationship between us by giving each other three months notice or the payment of three months salary in lieu of notice.
The Government exercised the latter option when we disagreed over the judgment debt and other Gargantuan crimes. The Government, and my colleague Ministers at the time know that there was no provision for dismissal under my contract of employment as a Minister or that of any Minster.
I reserve the right as a citizen of Ghana to protect and defend my honour and integrity should this civilized challenge for the truth be ignored.
This is not the price I should be made to pay by the Government of Ghana for defending the Constitution of Ghana in the Waterville and Isofoton unconstitutional payments declared by the Supreme Court.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
