Good morning distinguished
ladies and gentlemen of the media. It is my singular honour to welcome you on
behalf of the National Democratic Congress to today’s press conference.
We thank you for honoring our invitation at such
short notice and we are grateful for our continuous collaboration towards
upholding probity and accountability on the part of duty bearers, values which
the Founding father of the Great NDC and Ghana’s 4th Republic stood for.
In furtherance of the above ideals, we continue to
remember and honour the memory of our late Founder and an illustrious son of
Ghana who was also the first President and founder of the Fourth Republic, His
Excellency Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.
Friends from the media, as the
entire nation was united in grief over the passing of a man who was noted for
being an avowed anti-corruption campaigner and an unrepentant bastion of
justice, probity and accountability, the fight against corruption under
President Akufo-Addo received its final nail in the coffin on Monday, 16th
November, 2020, following the sudden resignation of the Special Prosecutor, Mr.
Martin Amidu.
The Ghanaian people were later to be treated to the
very chilling and confounding details of why the Special Prosecutor decided to
call it quit, and how President Akufo-Addo has been frustrating his work
through various actions and inactions that have conspired to make the sacred
functions of that anti-corruption institution untenable.
Indeed, we have also taken notice of the lame and
pathetic rationalization of President Akufo-Addo’s actions, proffered through a
wishy-washy statement signed by his cousin and Executive Secretary, in a
desperate attempt to save face.
We, and the vast majority of the Ghanaian people,
choose to treat President Akufo-Addo’s desperate post-facto rationalizations
with the contempt they deserve.
Many were those, including some of us, who saw this day
coming. Given the fact that the OSP was supposed to fight corruption, which has
become arguably the greatest achievement of President Akufo-Addo, it was only a
matter of time before the subject of corruption set the Special Prosecutor and
President Akufo-Addo on a collision cause.
Lo and behold, this is exactly
what has happened, and unsurprisingly, corruption has prevailed over the
Special Prosecutor, forcing him to abandon his office.
We are saddened to observe, that under the leadership
of President Akufo-Addo, corruption has become such a monstrous force,
devouring every force which dares to stand in its way.
When we speak of corruption in Ghana today, we are
talking about a canker supervised by the President himself, with the active
participation of his family, friends, cronies and appointees, all of whom are
scrambling and jostling for their share of the national booty.
Distinguished friends, when in 2016 President
Akufo-Addo was being presented to the Ghanaian electorate as “incorruptible”,
we knew that was a well-packaged fraud.
Today, Ghanaians have come to know our President for
who he is – a walking contradiction, pretending to be fighting corruption,
whilst at the same time, fighting and frustrating anyone who dares to expose or
question the stinking corruption he is superintending over.
The fact of the matter is that, the Office of the
Special Prosecutor was never set up by President Akufo-Addo out of a genuine
will to fight corruption.
This position that we in the NDC have always espoused
is grounded on the fact that, from the very outset, President Akufo-Addo
conceived this office as one to be used to spite his political opponents, while
protecting his own who are busy plundering the resources of our beloved
country.
This view is buttressed by the very opening paragraph
of Mr. Martin Amidu’s letter of resignation in which he reveals that his letter
of appointment as the Special Prosecutor was issued on 30th January, 2020 and
only delivered to him, on 5th February, 2020, two clear years after his
appointment.
Ladies and Gentlemen, that President Akufo-Addo would
issue a letter of appointment to the Special Prosecutor in January 2020, two
clear years after the pomp and pageantry that greeted the supposed outdooring
of the Special Prosecutor on 10th January, 2018, speaks volumes of President
Akufo-Addo’s lip service to the fight against corruption.
Akin to taking off a bird’s feathers and asking for
it to be identified, President Akufo-Addo out-doored a Special Prosecutor in
January 2018, confined him to a three bedroom office in Labone after denying
him office accommodation for close to two years, with a few seconded staff and
tasked him to fight corruption.
What is even sad is the fact that President Akufo
Addo has refused to pay the Special Prosecutor and his deputy for over two
years, that is, since their appointments.
Clearly, to all intents and purposes, President
Akufo-Addo set-up the Special Prosecutor’s Office to score cheap political
capital and nothing more.
As Mr. Martin Amidu himself has made us aware in his
letter of resignation, President Akufo-Addo has frustrated and interfered in
the discharge of his mandate, until he could no longer take kindly to the
President’s interference in his investigations into the ‘Agyapa’ Royalties
Transaction.
Indeed, as the now former Special Prosecutor
observed, President Akufo-Akufo had been under the delusion that the Special
Prosecutor would act as his poodle. Unbeknownst to Mr. Martin Amidu, we have
always known that President Akufo-Addo’s avowed fight against corruption was a
charade.
And if there was anyone out there who still believed
or hoped that President Akufo-Addo sought to fight corruption by setting up the
OSP, we are quite sure that person would have given up by now.
Only last week, friends from the media, we addressed
you on our observations relative to the risk of corruption assessment conducted
by the Special Prosecutor on the ‘Agyapa’ Royalties scam.
At that press briefing, we stated categorically that
President Akufo-Addo is refusing to give up on the stinking Agyapa scam, hence
his insistence that all discussions on this subject should be deferred until
after the upcoming election.
True to our word, and as corroborated by the OSP in
his letter of resignation, President Akufo-Addo had asked the SP, Mr. Martin
Amidu to shelve his corruption risk assessment report.
As has become the nature of President Akufo-Addo,
this so-called review was to afford him and his cousin the Finance Minister,
the opportunity to whitewash their crimes in the ‘Agyapa’ deal which had been
badly exposed by the Special Prosecutor.
As if the above interference in the ‘Agyapa’
Royalties investigation was not enough, the Special Prosecutor tells the whole
world how President Akufo-Addo once again invited him to his office on 1st
November, 2020, and ordered him to accept and incorporate into his risk of
corruption assessment report, comments from his cousin and Finance Minister,
Ken Ofori Atta who was himself the subject of investigation in the ‘Agyapa’
heist.
Even more scandalous was the fact that President
Akufo-Addo is said to have requested the Special Prosecutor to be allowed to as
it were ‘handle’ the Agyapa matter.
We just learnt from a leaked tape of an interview
between Martin Amidu and Citi FM’s Umara Sanda, that President Akufo Addo’s
cousin and finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta, actually went to the house of the
Special Prosecutor at the time he was conducting the corruption risk assessment
on the Agyapa matter to influence his work.
Distinguished friends from the media, that President
Akufo-Addo has cemented his dubious reputation as the “Corruption Clearing
Agent” is no longer in doubt.
Since assuming office as President, Akufo-Addo’s only
way of fighting corruption is to sweep serious crimes under the carpet and
declare his appointees innocent even before they are investigated.
Mr. Martin Amidu has stated in black and white in his
resignation letter, how President Akufo-Addo assumed the role of a judge in his
own cause in a matter he himself has been indicted relative to the excessive
executive approval he gave the stinky Agyapa deal on 24th March 2020 and his
assent of the Minerals Income Investment (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act 1024), with
the aim of giving retroactive effect to the Parliamentary approval of same.
Why has the President been this desperate in the
‘Agyapa’ matter? How could President Akufo-Addo, a man who swore to defend the
cause of right, be this corrupt?
Friends from the media, to say that President
Akufo-Addo’s so-called fight against corruption has been lost, is an understatement.
Today, every critical voice of dissent that dares to
talk about the unprecedented corruption under this government has been
suppressed.
The NPP/Akufo-Addo government to have gone to the
extent of threatening Mr. Martin Amidu with death for undertaking the Agyapa
anti-corruption risk assessment. This speaks volumes about President Akufo
Addo’s determination to fight anyone who dares to fight corruption in his
government.
The NDC has been alarmed and appalled by revelations
by Martin Amidu about threats of robbery, arson and death on his life following
the release of his corruption risk assessment report on the Agyapa scam.
Martin Amidu at this point needs our collective
prayer and protection against the vile threats directed at his life, since
according to him, the sudden demise of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings has removed
the only protection enjoyed from such threats and wicked plans
Ladies and Gentlemen, It is quite sad, that President
Akufo-Addo the self-acclaimed ‘incorruptible’ President who rode on the back of
anti-corruption campaign to power, is today a fighter of corruption fighters.
The removal of the Auditor-General, Mr. Daniel Yao Domelovo
for his relentless fight against corruption, the harassment of investigative
journalists such as Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Manasseh Azure Awuni, Edward Adeti and
other anti-corruption campaigners, and the sad and gruesome murder of Ahmed
Suale of Tigre Eye PI fame, casts the most undesirable record of any
democratically-elected President who is so determined to dim the torch of
accountability.
Never in the history of this country have we
witnessed this level of terror and cruelty being unleashed on anti-corruption
crusaders who deserve to be honored and celebrated for their good works.
Distinguished friends, the NDC is deeply concerned
about the threats of arson, robbery and assassination on the life of Mr. Martin
Amidu.
We wish to serve notice to President Akufo-Addo and
the NPP that the Ghanaian people will not sit down and watch them extend their
wickedness to Mr. Martin Amidu.
Therefore, should anything happen to him, President
Akufo-Addo will be held responsible. Ghanaians will not sit aloof for President
Akufo-Addo and his wicked and treacherous hirelings in government to take the
life of Mr. Martin Amidu as they did to the late Ahmed Suale.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, the attempt by
government to stop Citi FM which conducted this interview from airing same, is
in itself a perverse act of corruption and confirms what we have known all
along about government’s manipulation of the news.
We call on the GJA and National Media Commission to
launch a full scale investigation into this matter as it portends grave danger
to press freedom.
We also call on all voices of conscience in moral
society, traditional authorities, and Civil Society to rise up and condemn the
tyranny and totalitarianism being supervised by President Akufo-Addo.
Under the erstwhile NDC/Mills administration and
NDC/Mahama regime, Martin Amidu went about his anti-corruption activities in
peace.
Even though we disagreed with him on many issues,
neither President Mills nor President John Mahama nor their appointees
attempted to interfere with Martin Amidu’s work as citizen vigilante in any
way. Nor was he threatened by anybody.
So why is he being threatened with arson, robbery and
death by the NPP now for professionally discharging his statutory duties as
Special Prosecutor under the Akufo Addo government who touts themselves as
apostles of the democracy.
It is evil to appoint a man as Special Prosecutor and
refuse to pay him for two (2) years. Deliberately, starve his office of basic
resources necessary for his work. And when he indicts you for corruption,
threaten him with death. It is sad that President Akufo Addo and the NPP have
sunk this low.
Is it not perplexing that this same Martin Amidu was
hailed by President Akufo-Addo and the NPP as an avowed anti-corruption
crusader while in opposition? Didn’t they celebrate his appointment as Special
Prosecutor to mean the single most important commitment of Akufo-Addo to the
fight against corruption in the history of Ghana?
Is it not this same Martin Amidu who was hailed by
the NPP as a Citizen Vigilante whose word was the gospel truth in the past?
What has suddenly changed about the man today, that President Akufo-Addo and
his surrogates will turn around and vilify him, while branding everything he
says as lies?
The Ghanaian people are discerning enough to know
that between Martin Amidu and President Akufo-Addo, it is the latter who lied
his way into government, and continues to thrive on lies.
Ladies and gentlemen, the corruption risk assessment
of the Special Prosecutor has confirmed our long held position, that the
stinking Agyapa deal is fraught with cronyism, corruption, greed and potential
money laundering.
The mandate agreement violated the Public Procurement
law, Public Financial Management Act and the 1992 Constitution, hence null and
void.
If President Akufo Addo cannot suspend or prosecute
his cousin and finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta, and his acolyte, Charles Adu
Boahen as required of him, for their roles in this Agyapa scam due to his
glaring complicity in the matter, the least he can and should do, is to stop
harassing Martin Amidu and rather, retrieve for the country, the over 240
billion old cedis ($4 million) that his government has illegally paid to
African Legal Associates which is owned by his cousin, Gabby Otchere Darko; Databank,
which is owned by another cousin of his and finance minister and their foreign
collaborators.
We need our money now!
Friends from the media, Ghanaians today are having to
deal with one corruption scandal per day, with state-sponsored thievery reaching
a crescendo in the final days of the Akufo-Addo government.
Unprecedented culture of state capture has become the
mainstay of President Akufo-Addo, as we have witnessed in the case of ‘My
Sisters Keepers’ Foundation’, where the daughters of President Akufo-Addo have
been hiding behind a so-called charity foundation to extort monies from state
Agencies, the capture of A Duty Free Shop and CIP Lounge at the newly-built
Terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport for the family and friends of
President Akufo-Addo and the doling out of GNPC cash to wife of the President
under the pretext of charity work, just to mention a few.
Ghanaians today are left in no doubt as to the fact
that President Akufo-Addo is the most corrupt President in Ghana’s history, who
has been using subterfuge and intimidation to conceal his true nature. But
thank God his cup is now full, as all these latest revelations are signs of the
end of his corrupt tenure and the judgement of God against his misrule.
Coming events, they say, cast their shadow, and the
defeat of President Akufo-Addo on 7th December, 2020 is increasingly becoming
glaring.
No amount of threats or intimidation against
political opponents, the media and CSO’s will stop our collective resolve to
expose the stinking corruption being supervised by President Akufo-Addo and his
family and friends cabal, as the Ghanaian people wait with bated breath to kick
him and his corrupt government out of office and restore truth, decency and
honesty to the Presidency.
Thank you for coming.
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