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Attorney General, Martin Amidu has been sacked

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President J.E.A Mills has with immediate effect relieved Martin Amidu of his post as  Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

A statement signed by the Chief of Staff, John H. M. Newman explained that the decision is as a result of Mr Amidu's misconduct at a meeting last Friday, January 13, 2012 presided over by the President.

"Mr Amidu's behaviour is incompatible with acceptable standards expected of Ministers and Appointees of the President", the statement said.

The statement said a letter conveying the President's decision to relieve Mr Amidu of his post has already been sent to him thanking him for services rendered to the country as a member of the government.

Meanwhile, the President has directed the Minister of Interior, Benjamin Kunbuour to take temporary responsibility for the Ministry of Justice until a substantive Minister is appointed.

It said the President has further directed the Acting Minister to continue the prosecution of all government cases currently before the courts including the Alfred Woyome case.

It would be recalled that the President met with Mr Martin Amidu, over the minister’s recent allegation of crime against some ministers in the government and demanded him to substantiate his claims.

At the end of the meeting, held behind closed doors at the Castle, Mr Amidu failed to mention the names of anybody in government or substantiate his claims of “gargantuan crimes” purportedly committed by members of the government.

According to a government source, the Justice Minister, who had said that he had never begged the President Mills to be appointed Attorney-General, pleaded with the President to temper justice with mercy, particularly in the face of the impending Cabinet reshuffle.
Mr Amidu, on January 11, 2012, signed and issued a statement titled, “Response to Malicious Libels against the Attorney-General”.

In the statement, he claimed, among other things, that “... colleague minister of state who perceived my integrity and professionalism as a lawyer was a threat to the concealment of gargantuan crimes against the people of Ghana in which they might be implicated”.

Mr Amidu again alleged, “Fairness requires that NDC criminals be prosecuted by me as well, as an independent and impartial Attorney-General, albeit appointed by the NDC Government.”

In apparent response to the NDC Communications Team, he had said, “The ethics of the legal profession and the Bar, of which I am the leader, are more sacred to me than that of young and inexperienced members of a Communication Team of the NDC who are absolutely ignorant of the functions of an Attorney-General under the Constitution of Ghana.”

President Mills was said to have stated clearly at the beginning of the meeting that his aim was to get to the bottom of the matter and ensure that any member of his administration tainted with corruption was made to face the full rigours of the law.

However, at the meeting with the President and some Ministers of State last Friday to name the ministers mentioned in his statement, Mr Amidu, who could not use the platform created by the President to name those alleged to have perpetrated the crime, rather pleaded for leniency.

The Attorney-General was said to have pleaded for pardon for making sweeping statements.

Source: Daily Graphic

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