Co-Chair of the Citizens Movement against Corruption (CMaC), Edem Senanu, has described the resignation of Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu as shocking, disappointing and very preventable.

Speaking on Joy FM, following the breaking news of Martin Amidu’s resignation from the office of Special prosecutor, Edem Senanu said, “It is shocking, it is disappointing and this is something that was preventable.”

Mr Martin Amidu resigned today from his position as Special Prosecutor, citing threats to his person and the inability to "exercise any independence as the Special Prosecutor".

In his letter to the press, he stated: “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.”

In reference to the passing of the former ex-president J.J. Rawlings who he described as his "protection", he added that, “The events of 12th November 2020 removed the only protection I had from the threats and plans directed at me for undertaking the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions anti-corruption assessment report and dictates that I resign as the Special Prosecutor immediately.”

Edem Senanu, an advocate for the total independence of the Special Prosecutor’s office stated that Martin Amidu’s resignation could have been avoided if he was allowed the space and freedom to operate.

According to him, it was rather unfortunate that the Special Prosecutor within his 3-year tenure had not received any remuneration from government and had not been given the required office space to function as well as the needed logistics and investigators to work with.

He found it disappointing that the office of the Special Prosecutor was only ‘ceremonial’ in nature as it did not have the power to sanction culprits.

"There was a lot of enthusiasm in getting him in there, but I cannot for the life of me understand how come 4 years later he has not been given the additional office space and logistics to have additional staff.

"He has not been empowered to directly engage the kind of quality people with background checks to ensure their integrity. He has not been given the capacity to sanction this staff because he’s the one who’s engaged them…that’s a recipe for disaster."

"And so to a large extent was he appointed to deliver or to fail on the back of this very current report?" he quizzed.

Edem Senanu says the resignation of the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu has greatly undermined Ghana’s fight against corruption.