A former Attorney General and Minister for Justice Martin Amidu popularly known as citizen vigilante has stated that some elements may be “sabotaging” President Akufo-Addo’s fight against corruption.
According to Mr. Amidu, Clause 3 sub-clause 4 of the Special Prosecutor’s Bill makes the whole Office a waste of public resources and everybody’s time.
In a statement, Mr. Amidu said “Somebody must be sabotaging the President’s fight against corruption. What you will read hereunder relates only to Clause 3 which deals with the functions of the office. It demonstrates what has happened to Presidents who intend the good of their people and nations but were led astray by minders and appointees with clearly different and opposite criminal objectives.
“I have no doubt that the insertion of Clause 3(4) that negates the whole Bill before Parliament was done to enable those proponents to harvest their shameless perceived share of the proceeds of corruption that dishonest appointees criminally exploit in public office.
“These may be men and women who might have wormed their way into public office by deceiving the President about their credentials of integrity and honour to render loyal service to him and the Republic of Ghana. The insertion of Clause 3(4) in the Bill should therefore be a wake-up call for the President to watch his incorruptible appointees, because as the saying goes, it is not all that glitters which is gold.
“I am of the strong conviction that the attempt to pull a fast one on Ghanaians by the insertion of Clause 3(4) into the Bill to negate the fight against corruption is the work of a strong and powerful cabal within the government because they even succeeded in ensuring that the memorandum to the Bill was silent on this important insertion so that it will not catch the eye of the casual Ghanaian reading public.
“Bribery and corruption is bribery and corruption. We cannot justify any form of corruption. The 1992 Constitution did not make any exception when it prohibited corruption and enjoined every citizen to fight corruption. The exceptions in Clause 3(4) of the Bill are consequently unconstitutional. Somebody should have known or realized that those insertions would embarrass the President in the promises he made to Ghanaians to fight corruption and prevented their insertion in the Bill,” he said.