‘You’re younger than my son’ – Ghana’s special prosecutor loses his cool in a clash with Attorney General

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Ghana’s Supreme Court on Wednesday was the centre of attraction as the country’s first special prosecutor Mr Martin Amidu clashed with a deputy attorney general.

Mr Amidu felt disrespected by the actions of the junior minister Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame.

“If you don’t respect, don’t come to me for cooperation. You are younger than my son and a junior at the Bar,” the Special Prosecutor spewed in a report.

The Deputy A-G had taken exception to what he described as the Special Prosecutor’s attempt to paint the A-G as not working to retrieve the €47.7 million judgement debt that the government illegally paid to Waterville Holdings.

According to the Deputy A-G, there was no evidence that the A-G had refused to cooperate with Mr Amidu to enforce the order of the Supreme Court for the money to be retrieved.

He rather accused the Special Prosecutor of not cooperating with the A-G and leaking information to the media.

Deputy AG Godfred Dame rebutted that the Special Prosecutor was creating the impression that the AG’s office was not bent on retrieving the money.

He also stated that this is why Mr. Amidu leaked the documents he submitted to the AG’s office to the press.

Amidu reacts

Martin Amidu took offence as he remarked that he wasn’t a publisher and cannot be held responsible for publications in the press.

“Where is the evidence that I am responsible for the publication?” Mr Amidu asked.

Mr Dame rebutted that the Special Prosecutor indeed told the press that the AG’s office wasn’t working to retrieve the money.

He maintained the Special Prosecutor said this in an interview on a TV programme dubbed “Time with David”. He urged the court to rule on his request that the application is incompetent. 

The Special Prosecutor reacted once again that he doesn’t like it when he’s tagged as someone who tells lies.

“I don’t want to be tagged as someone who lies”, the Special Prosecutor stated.

He added that the court’s decision could well affect the desire of citizens to expend their limited resources to ensure that laws of the state are respected.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has dismissed Mr Amidu’s application urging the court to compel the A-G to enforce the judgement for the money to be retrieved from Waterville.

According to a five-member panel of the court, Mr Amidu’s application had no basis in rules of law or procedure.

“The application is incompetent and hereby dismissed,” the court held.

Background

On June 14, 2013, the Supreme Court ordered Waterville Holdings to refund the €47.36 million the state paid it because the contract between it and the state in 2006 for the construction of stadia for CAN 2008 was not approved by Parliament and was, therefore, unconstitutional and invalid.

The case which culminated in the apex court’s judgment was initiated by Mr Amidu, in his capacity as a private citizen.

Mr Amidu also initiated a similar case which led to a similar decision by the court on July 29, 2014 for the businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, to refund the GH¢51.2 million that was paid to him by the state in relation to the same contract.

Mr Woyome got the GH¢51.2 million as the financial engineer behind the Waterville deal.

On the new case, Mr Amidu claimed the A-G had gone to sleep and was not making concrete efforts to enforce the judgment which had ordered Waterville to refund the money.

He was, therefore, seeking an order from the court to compel the A-G to enforce the judgment.

The Supreme Court, however, dismissed his application as incompetent.

Source: Daily Mail GH