Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has described as, alien, the risk of corruption and anti-corruption risk assessment as was done by Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, on the controversial Agyapa Royalties agreement.
The Special Prosecutor decided to do corruption risk assessment on the agreement in the height of the controversy in which the president and some of his appointees were accused of scheming to mortgage the mineral royalties of the country in a shady deal.
Mr. Amidu’s assessment revealed that the agreement was not transparent and that it had breached some provisions of the constitution, the Public Procurement Act, the Public Financial Managament Act among laws.
In a rather bizarre turn of events, Mr. Amidu on Monday, November 16, resigned citing interference by the president as one of the reasons.
According to him, Akufo-Addo tried to interfere with his work on the report of the risk assessment and that the whole exercise put his life under threat. But the president has since disagreed and dismissed the allegation of interference in a letter signed by his executive secretary, Nana Asante Bediatuo.
Giving more clarity to the letter from the presidency, Member of Parliament(MP) for the Ofoase-Ayirebi, explains the Act that establishes the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Act 959, does not expressly provide for a risk assessment and that it is not familiar to the laws of Ghana.
“Martin Amidu on his own did a corruption risk assessment, which by the way is alien, to our laws, nobody stopped him”, he said.
“I have said it is known to our laws, if you read the office of the special prosecutor act, it requires him to do an investigation and prosecution of corruption related offences, you will not find anywhere that Corruption Risk Assessment, but Martin Amidu proceeded to do a corruption risk assessment but nobody said anything”, he explained.
He has however given an assurance that the state will continue to provide security to Martin Amidu who is now a former Special Prosecutor, especially so when he claims that there have been death threats on his life.
By P.D Wedam|3news.com|Ghana
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