Martin Amidu
Former Special Prosecutor, Martin Alamisi Amidu has reacted to embattled Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng attempts to play to public gallery by asking him to stop pretending as a ‘Saint’ in the name of fighting corruption.
According to Martin Amidu “It is nauseating to read a report from Kissi Agyebeng today, dated 20 May 2024, deceiving Ghanaians that he is saving this nation millions of Ghana Cedis of the public purse from payroll audits in the Northern Region when Kissi Agyebeng and the CAGD have been committing the same suspected offences of abuse of the payroll system in the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) since Kissi Agyebeng assumed duty as the Special Prosecutor at the OSP”.
In a statement issued by the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu noted that it is time to demand that Kissi Agyebeng stop the propaganda of saving the public purse millions of Ghana Cedis through payroll audits with the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) and rather confess to Ghanaians for his suspected commission of several specified corruption and corruption-related offences under Section 79 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act 2017 (Act 959) since his assumption of office as the Special Prosecutor before the law catches up with him.
He said, “Anytime Kissi Agyebeng suspects that suspected criminal activities of the OSP may come to public notice and attention he resorts to using his supporting rented press and media to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians of his indispensability to the fight against corruption in Ghana”.
He continued “Whether anybody shares the same moral and cultural values with me, I cannot allow the continued deception of Ghanaians by suspected criminals who ought to be under investigation by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) for causing financial loss to the state in the process of the commission of specified corruption and corruption-related offences under Section 79 of Act 959. Law enforcement cannot be a selective enterprise as Kissi Agyebeng and his particular media houses want to impose on Ghanaians in violation of the right to defend the 1992 Constitution”.
He lamented that “I have in my possession letters written and signed by Kissi Agyebeng without reference numbers violating Article 195 of the 1992 Constitution and Section 21 of Act 959. Kissi Agyebeng, the Chief Accountant of the OSP, (who is an employee of the CAGD), and the CAGD are paying unconstitutionally employed staff of the OSP vast amounts of salaries and allowances each month from the public purse without any authority under the 1992 Constitution”.
“The OSP and Kissi Agyebeng who heads it ought to be confessing to Ghanaians that Kissi Agyebeng wrote and signed letters without any constitutional authority appointing and paying staff without stating their conditions of service in the appointment letters. Kissi Agyebeng then signed another set of two letters in his capacity as the Special Prosecutor months later with conditions of service bearing the same dates confirming those appointments with two separate ranks assigned to the same staff”.
“The implication as Kissi Agyebeng knows is that the staff petitioned against the rank initially assigned, and Kissi Agyebeng in suspected criminality wrote the second letter and back-dated it to enable the abuse of the OSP payroll by the CAGD and him the tip of the iceberg! When you live in a glass house you do not throw stones! Kissi Agyebeng is so full of himself that he does not recognize that by selectively appointing and giving higher ranks to some staff and neglecting others who think they deserve the same or better ranks he has antagonized several of his unlawfully appointed staff”.
“How then does it lie in Kissi Agyebeng’s mouth to be parading a report that the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) is contesting as reasons for his indispensability in the fight against corruption in Ghana? The staff on the OSP payroll whom Kisis Agyebeng and the CAGD have been paying in violation of Article 195 of the 1992 Constitution and Section 21 of Act 959 from the public purse are all ghost workers on the OSP payroll under the 1992 Constitution” he added.
“Kissi Agyebeng: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your eye?” – see Matthew 7: 3-5 in the RSV Catholic Edition for Africa. Kisi Agyebeng ought also to remember Hamlet’s statement to Laertes when Hamlet said: “…Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew and every dog will have his day”.
“No earthly pretence of attending the same church with the head of one of the arms of Government and sharing the same pastor can override God’s edict and truth to save Kissi Agyebeng and the OSP in escaping from confronting their suspected crimes,” he stated.
“The 1992 Constitution must be defended no matter the entrepreneurial motives of Kissi Agyebeng as the Special Prosecutor and his media friends to loot the public purse through the abuse of the payroll of the OSP while deceiving the Ghanaian public about the Ghana Education Service and its Trade Unions committing the same or lesser offences, Martin Amidu concluded in his current statement.
Background
In a recent petition recently filed by Martin Amidu, the Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, has written to the Special Prosecutor (SP), Kissi Agyebeng, for his response to a petition by his predecessor, seeking his removal.
Mr Amidu wants Kissi Agyebeng to prove that he is innocent of the allegations levelled against him [Agyebeng].
He cites denials of the Right to Information (RTI) request fishing for information to assess the breaches he is alleging,
The response by the Special Prosecutor, according to the letter from the Chief Justice dated Thursday (May 16, 2024), is to assist the Chief Justice in determining whether there is a prima facie case (case to answer) against Mr Agyebeng.
Mr Martin Amidu alleges it is the president who should have appointed staff of the OSP and not the Special Prosecutor, adding that the SP appropriated the powers of the president when he engaged the services of three directors when he did not have a board.
He pointed out in many words that he had mainly sought the secondment of staff to his Office with the approval of the President when he did not have a board.
However, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng did not seek approval from the president.
The former Special Prosecutor alleges that the current Special Prosecutor recruited staff from sister law enforcement agencies, particularly the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) and the Ghana Police Service by inducing them with higher salaries and higher ranks.
-BY Daniel Bampoe