President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said he has no regrets appointing former attorney general Martin Amidu as Ghana’s first special prosecutor.
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Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of Kissi Agyebeng as the new special prosecutor in Accra on Thursday, 5 August 2021, Akufo-Addo said: “The appointment if you would recall was met with stiff opposition from both sides. In spite of the unfortunate events that led to the departure of the first occupant of the office, I do not regret making that appointment.”
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He added: “On my part as the president, I ensured that the office was adequately resourced to enable it carry out it mandates. I am, however, consoled by the statement that there is no use crying over spilt milk”
“My party, the New Patriotic Party and I came to office in 2017 with the commitment and indeed an overwhelming mandate from the Ghanaian people to fashion an additional instrument to fight the canker of corruption that has taken a firm root in every aspect of national life and is visibly growing in the heart of the Ghanaian state. The genuineness of that commitment to create a non-partisan board with the relevant professional capability to lead the fight and hold public officials past and present accountable for their stewardship of public finance was made manifest in the appointment of a very senior figure from the opposite side of the political divide to establish and head this very significant office,” Akufo-Addo said.
However, it would be recalled that Martin Amidu is on record to have said he regrets accepting the position of special prosecutor. In his article, titled, “A Short Tenure Fighting Corruption and Political Discrimination Is More Honourable” published on Friday, July 9, 2021, Amidu explained he only trusted the “sheepish” decision by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to appoint him to the position, which he never touts as an achievement.
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“The only regret I have in life is to have trusted President Nana Akufo-Addo in such a sheepish manner as to have allowed him to have conned me into agreeing to be his Special Prosecutor in a naïve but sincere belief on my part that he was intent on fighting corruption and was also against using the process of criminal justice administration as an instrument of political discrimination against his political opponents,” he said.
On his part, the new SP Agyebeng said he will work hard to ensure that corruption in Ghana which he likened to a pandemic, is suppressed and repressed in the nation.
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“I come into this office and pledge to the people of Ghana as I said exactly two weeks ago, that I am going to work assiduously with deliberation, to supress and repress corruption,” he said.
