You act on Impulse to the Neglect of your SP Mandate, Watch It: An Open Letter to Mr. Martin Amidu - Special Prosecutor

The Special Prosecutor and the Office of the Special Prosecutor of Ghana were appointed and established respectively per the tenets of Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959), which received presidential assent on January 2, 2018. The said law gives the Special Prosecutor security of tenure like those of the Justices of the Superior Courts and constitutional office holders such as the Electoral Commissioner, CHRAJ boss, NCCE boss and Auditor-General. Suffice to say that the Special Prosecutor cannot easily be dismissed from office.

Former President Mahama’s Reaction to your recent report on the Agyapa Deal

Mr. Amidu, I must first indicate unequivocally and unhesitatingly that I take exceptions to Former President Mahama’s vehemence and use of stupidity as well as cowardice in reacting to the recent Agyapa report you submitted to the President of Ghana. Such personal attacks and use of abusive words should not be given room in our public discourse because our children are very observant and may copy us blindly. As such, an astute public figure like Former President Mahama should not be heard or seen using such words on others in society, let alone use them when talking under media coverage to tertiary students.

Be that as it may, Mr. Amidu, how is the airbus saga a related matter to Agyapa? Don’t Ghanaians deserve an in-depth and independent report on your investigations relating to the airbus saga? Why make the airbus controversy a footnote to the main pages of the Agyapa report and thereby keeping the airbus issue in the shadows of the Agyapa report? Before Agyapa, airbus was. So why didn’t you first submit a major report on airbus?

You set out, Mr. Amidu, to report on Agyapa and its related matters. Agyapa is about mineral royalties while the airbus brouhaha is about military aircraft procurement irregularities and alleged personal benefits therefrom for Government Official 1 and some others. Methinks you are wasting precious time required to fully report on the airbus issue. This is where your critiques say that you are virtually being paid for no corresponding jobs done.

Minimize Your Impulsive Responses to Issues in the Public Domain

Mr. Amidu, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), which you currently occupy as Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor, is a reputable office with a serious national assignment. As such, you as the Special Prosecutor (SP) should guard against being blown by any wind. Anything to the contrary will reinforce winds of disruption against you and instead of focusing on your mandate, you will be carried away by those winds that will not help you achieve your ultimate goal of protecting the public purse. Your vituperations and quick responses to unnecessary issues are conterminous with the assertion that you have no work to do yet you are paid salaries monthly.

Unfortunately Mr. Amidu, since you came to office as the SP, you have been responding to almost every voice that mentions your name or title. Quite recently for example, Mr. Amidu, you had enough time responding to Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi’s book dubbed, Working with Rawlings. You referred to those write-ups to Prof. Ahwoi as presentations. I started reading those pieces of yours and was enjoying them initially because of some historical accounts and some new legal words I started learning from you. Examples are autrefois convict and autrefois acquit.

However, I stopped reading them somewhere along the line because I noticed that you were not only demonstrating self-aggrandisement over others but also overly personal, repetitive and boring in your submissions. Wouldn’t it be more prudent that this precious time you were wasting on responding to Prof. Ahwoi, would be used more productively on your official duties such as compiling a major report on the airbus saga and not just mentioning such an important issue only briefly in an Agyapa report to President Akuffo Addo? By this, are you not giving credence to the sharp criticism that you are being paid a gargantuan salary every month for nothing?

Mr. Amidu, by your response to Former President Mahama dated November 9, 2020, you have vindicated a journalist called Kofi Gamor who runs the morning show on West (97.5) FM in Ho. While discussing Former President Mahama’s abusive word on you, Kofi Gamor told one of the discussants on air that you would surely reply Mahama. With much certainty, Kofi Gamor said, “Knowing Mr. Martin Amidu, he will surely reply Former President Mahama. You wait and see.” Within this context Mr. Amidu, I hereby borrow words from Kofi Gamor, twist it my own way and assert predictively that you will respond to this my open letter to you. And if you do, Mr. Amidu, I will not have an iota of surprise. I am now convinced that you are intolerant to criticisms so you react to any voice even if it has the tendency to distract you from your core business as the SP. Mr. Amidu, you see how people can predict your reactions?

Give No Room for Deviation of Mandate: Be Focused

Per your mandate as the SP, you are an independent investigator and a prosecutor who makes or is supposed to make enquiries into corruption, bribery or criminal cases within both the public and private sectors of the economy. As such, your office (OSP) is not a public relation agency to focus on running commentaries on issues irrelevant to the mandate of the SP.

Did I hear tell Former President Mahama to “man up, wise up and be brave enough to come with two lawyers of his choice to be cautioned and interrogated by the OSP”? Oh really? What if he does not come to you? In fact Mr. Amidu, if you had ever gone on bird hunting or any hunting of a sort, you would have noticed that those creatures do not run to the hunter asking to be killed. The hunter searches for them and kills them. By this, I mean you should rather invite people for interrogation on such serious matters under your purview and not just expect them to be running to your office because they are wise and courageous. Former President Mahama even challenged you to invite him to the OSP. What are you waiting for?

For goodness sake Mr. Amidu, if you are not inviting Former President Mahama due to the immunities accorded him as President Emeritus, then say so. Your assertion that he being a flagbearer of a political party restrained your invitation to him for interrogation rather creates room for eyebrows. The man said you should invite him.

In fact, the law under which you were appointed as the SP makes you a powerful pubic office holder. The law gives you investigative and prosecutorial powers aside the fact that your appointment cannot be terminated easily. Your tenure of office has been anchored on article 146 of the Constitution, 1992 and similar provisions in the OSP Act, 2017 (Act 959). What else do you need to function effectively, Mr. Amidu? As a matter of fact, Section 28 of the OSP Act states, “The Special Prosecutor (SP) and authorised officers shall exercise the powers of a police officer specified in the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30) or any other enactment.

Conclusion

To this end, Mr. Martin Alamisi Burnes Kaiser Amidu, I want to conclude that President Mahama has dared you enough. He told you that you dealt cowardly and stupidly with the airbus saga within the Agyapa report. Responding to him in a two-page letter and calling him pretentiously as wise and brave is not enough for Ghanaians. If indeed your investigations point to the fact that he is Government Official 1 in the airbus saga, then Ghanaians deserve a full investigative report under your hands, with the wrongs exposed and duly punished. Otherwise, your running of public relations with such an important issue would also be suggestive that the SP prefers a cosmetic solution that would only scratch the surface of a national problem rather than tackling the factors germane to the root causes of such a problem.

Advisedly Mr. Amidu, stop responding to every voice in the public domain and focus on the duties of your Office a bit more productively in national interest. Saying that you have a record of long public service since February 1982 is not enough. Those seasoned experiences must be brought to bear effectively on the job the Ghanaian taxpayers monthly pay you for. And again, I say, I will not be surprised if you reply me. In fact, I read this comment on Facebook. It states, “Martin Amidu is just reducing his office to Martin’s Liver Salt”

~Asante Sana ~

Author: Philip Afeti Korto

Email: afetikorto@yahoo.com