Some words used by Martin Amidu in recent writeup ‘unfortunate’ – Dr. Acheampong

Political Risk Analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong says some of the words used by the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu in his response to the President’s November 17 letter are unfortunate.

According to him, although Mr. Amidu had every right to defend himself, his choice of words was uncalled for and gives the impression that he was after a fight with the Presidency.

“Basically Amidu is claiming that the President has set more or less some attack dogs on him and so he needs to defend his integrity for following the professional work that he did on Agyapa.

“But at the same time using words like ‘lazy lawyers’, ‘government is now being run on autopilot’, ‘former anti-corruption Moses’; I think those words are quite unfortunate and I read it like Amidu is more or less spoiling or looking for a fight,” he explained.

His comment follows a 27-paged response by the former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu to the Presidency following his resignation.

In the letter, the Citizen Vigilante as he has been described used some harsh words to describe the President, Akufo-Addo, and his Secretary, Nana Asante Bediatuo.

Excerpts of his letter read: “If the President and you had found the time to read the full Agyapa Royalties Transaction anti-corruption assessment report you would not have relied on the conclusions and observations like lazy lawyers relying on facts and holding in a published law report to make false and frivolous character assassination attacks on my integrity for cheap political point-scoring.

“I shudder to think of the impression being created to the domestic and international community that this dear country of ours, Ghana, is now being run on autopilot.

“My dear former “Anti-Corruption Moses” this is just one example to remind you, Mr President, that you should not have unleashed your attack dogs on my integrity as being responsible for the failure of the Special Prosecutor in the fight against corruption under your Presidency.

“…that God (represented by the Holy Trinity in my Catholic faith) was in his own divine way revealing to me for the first time that the President of Ghana only looked like the innocent flower in the fight against corruption but was indeed the mother serpent of corruption under the innocent-looking flower of anti-corruption.”

But speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile Saturday, Dr. Theo Acheampong said Mr. Amidu’s choice of words did not address the core issues he had raised.

According to the Senior Fellow at IMANI Africa, more gains would have been made in the fight against corruption if the Citizen Vigilante had gone straight to the point and avoided name-calling.

“I’m a bit worried about some of the words that Amidu uses in the latest epistle and it doesn’t really do much good in terms of us looking at the core issues that he raises.

“He has a constitutional right to defend himself no doubt, but the words that were used are a bit unfortunate as far as I am concerned.”