Martin Amidu must be investigated – ASEPA

The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has insisted that the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu must be thoroughly investigated for suddenly resigning from his office after being at post for about 32 months.

According to the pressure group, if reasons stated by Martin Amidu in his resignation letter are anything to go by, then it means the Special Prosecutor was enjoying some ‘illegal’ benefits in his position regardless of not receiving his emoluments.

The Executive Director of ASEPA, Mensah Thompson speaking in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Sefa-Danquah on the Epa Hoa Daben political talk show said:

“If I am working and I have not received the things to work with and my benefits for six (6) months, I’ll leave. But how come Martin Amidu was not given anything for about 32-33 months, stayed in office all this while and is suddenly resigning? Martin Amidu must not be allowed to leave like that”.

He furthered that Martin Amidu is telling Ghanaians stories and needs to be investigated on why his work was interfered with but he still was in office for 32 months. “We need to investigate this. Why was he still in office regardless of the opposition and not receiving any benefits? This is suspicious. Maybe he got something else from the office we didn’t know about and that is why he stayed.

Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu resigned from his position as Special Prosecutor claiming he does not feel that President Nana Akufo-Addo has done enough to safeguard the independence of his office and has refused to pay him his emoluments amongst other concerns.

Portions of his release read:

I should not ordinarily be announcing my resignation to the public myself but the traumatic experience I went through from 20th October 2020 to 2nd November 2020 when I conveyed in a thirteen (13) page letter the conclusions and observations on the analysis of the risk of corruption and anti-corruption assessment on the Report On Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions and Other Matters Related Thereto to the President as Chairman of the National Security Council cautions against not bringing my resignation as the Special Prosecutor with immediate to the notice of the Ghanaian public and the world.

In undertaking the analysis of the risk of prevention of corruption and anti-corruption assessment I sincerely believed that I was executing an independent mandate under the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Act, 2017 (Act 959) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018 (L. I. 2374). The reaction I received for daring to produce the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions anti-corruption report convinces me beyond any reasonable doubt that I was not intended to exercise any independence as the Special Prosecutor in the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and recovery of assets of corruption. My position as the Special Prosecutor has consequently become clearly untenable.