President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that the appointment of Martin Amidu as Special Prosecutor is meant to put the fear of the lord in public officers to reduce acts of corruption in their places of work.
According to him, he does not expect that the former Attorney General, Martin Amidu to provide all answers to deal with the phenomenon of corruption by public officials.
[ads1]He was responding to questions from a number of country’s top journalists in his second Media Encounter since assumed office at the Flagstaff House on Wednesday, January 17, 2018.
His Excellency Nana Addo revealed that “Having signed on January 2 the act of the Special Prosecutor, I have appointed Mr. Martin Amidu as the first person to hold that position. I am aware the general sense of anxiety in the country and the strong feeling the politician tend to get away with corrupt practices. A significant choice though that Mr. Amidu is I do not expect that he’ll provide all the answers to deal with the phenomenon of corruption by public officials. But I do believe that at least the office will remove the fear of partisan prosecutions and begin to put the fear of God in all public officials who are intending to go down the path of corruption”, he said.
He reiterated his resolve to protect the national purse by weeding out shady deals using state institutions and warned that current appointees are not exempted from investigations and prosecution if there are allegations of corruption established against the same as the past appointees.
“Let me state again, that current office holders are as likely to be investigated and prosecuted by the Special Prosecutor if a case is made out against them, as past office holders,” he said
More About Martin Amidu
Martin A. B. K. Amidu was the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice from January 2011 till January 2012 under the late President John Evans Atta-Mills.
Amidu, a member of the NDC, served as the Deputy Attorney-General for about the last four years of the Provisional National Defence Council military government.
After civilian rule was established in the Fourth Republic in January 1993, he continued to serve in the government of Jerry Rawlings as Deputy Attorney-General. This he did for both terms lasting eight years until January 2001.
In the December 2000 presidential elections, he stood as the running mate of John Atta Mills. They both however lost to President John Kufuor that year.
In January 2010, following a cabinet reshuffle, President Mills replaced Cletus Avoka with Martin Amidu as the Minister for Interior. As Amidu is a Builsa, some people raised questions as to his neutrality in dealing with the Bawku conflict. He, however, went successfully through vetting by the Parliament of Ghana and has since assumed his post.
Following the second major cabinet reshuffle by President Mills, Amidu became the Attorney general and Minister for Justice of Ghana.