Martin Amidu’s Rejoinder: Re: We Won’t Respond To Corruption Claims By Martin Amidu – Office Of The Speaker

Joy News in a publication on 11 June 2024 having the source as Prince Adu-Owusu with the above banner headline reported amongst other things that the Speaker “... gave Mr Amidu seven days to retract and apologise, but Mr Amidu disregarded the Speaker's request.” The Joy News report added that: “But speaking to JoyNews, the Chief of Staff at the Office of the Speaker, Kofi Attor, clarified that there is no truth to the allegations made by the former Special Prosecutor. He also insisted that Speaker Alban Bagbin has never "self-confessed" to be corrupt.” Joy News effectively gave Kofi Attor a platform to call me a liar when I was writing from verifiable facts and evidence on the “self-confession”.

Related: We won’t respond to corruption claims by Martin Amidu – Office of the Speaker

Every sane person would have realized that contrary to the headline given to the Joy News report, it had learnt its platform to the Office of the Speaker to respond to my alleged claims.

I am accordingly exercising my constitutional right to a rejoinder to rebut Mr. Kofi Attor’s insinuations against me on Joy News of lying and expect Joy News to publish my rejoinder as mandated under clause 6 of Article 162 of the 1992 Constitution.

On 10 June 2024, which was the occasion of the 32 Anniversary of the formation of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 1992, my nemesis, Joy FM gave its platform for the Chairman of the planning committee for the occasion, Mr. Kofi Attor, to wage another proxy war against me by calling me a liar. I first met and knew Mr. Kofi Attor, who is said to be an employee of Parliament working as the Chief of Staff to the Speaker of Parliament as a cadre of the 31 December Revolution (he was not even the CDR Co-ordinator) when I was re-assigned from the Ministry of Industries, Science and Technology to relieve the late Dr. Kwabena Adjei from the Volta Regional Administration as PNDC Deputy Secretary in March 1988. He knows me well to know that I am not a liar except for the fact that he was speaking this time for his employer and the side where his bread is buttered. As a shot across the bow, Joy FM and he may wish to read the tip of the iceberg reported on: Alban Bagbin admits he is corrupt (audio) - Graphic Online. My article on: “The NDC needs to think long...”, published on 27 May 2024, never used the word “admits” consequently the host and he on the Joy FM programme on 10 June 2024 must have read the link above which explains their putting the word “admits” into my mouth in their TV interview while pretending that I had adduced no evidence to support the words I really wrote - “the self-confessed corrupt Speaker ”. The evidence has always been in plain view all over the internet; one simply just needed to google it for the evidence to pop up in multiple torrents.

The media cannot claim exceptionalism when it comes to upholding and defending the fundamental rights and freedoms to free speech, and the media, guaranteed under the 1992 Constitution. A little responsible and unbiased journalism would have unearthed what I styled as the tip of the iceberg Graphic Online (audio) link publication disclosed in the immediately preceding paragraph of this rejoinder. The media ought to be above banal politics if the 1992 Constitution has to survive the desperation of political parties for political power through the deception of the electorate. Ghana must always come first!

Martin A. B. K. Amidu 16 June 2024