Don’t push me to open Pandora box-Amidu warns

The former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, has threatened to open the Pandora box if he is pushed.

Days after he resigned from office, the controversial former anti-corruption chief has warned persons attacking his personality to desist from the attack as he would do anything to protect his integrity.

“They should tell their people they have wrongly briefed to be telling lies about me to stop before I decide to respond. When I decide to respond, I will do so without fear or favour, to the extent that, if my life will be laid for speaking the truth and defending the constitution of Ghana, I will do so.

“Now, I am a private citizen, nobody can control me, and I have a constitutional right to defend myself and the constitution of Ghana. Corruption and corruption-related offences are forbidden by the constitution and assessment of anti-corruption is something allowable under the constitution. It must not be subsumed under personal attacks, it must stop,” he said in a no-hold-back interview with Citi Fm.

Mr. Amidu had in a resignation letter issued accused the President of interfering in his work after he submitted reports of the Agyapa deal, adding that the President was under the illusion that he would be a poodle.

The President denied the accusation in a nine-page response in which he said Mr. Amidu failed to apply the law of natural justice when he did the anti-corruption assessment on the Agyapa Royalties deal in which the government wanted to raise $1 billion as it offers 49% of the country’s mineral royalties to prospective shareholders on the Ghana and London Stock markets.

But the report and Mr. Amidu’s resignation, as well as the president’s response to the allegations, has become a subject of controversies.

On Thursday, Mr Amidu claimed that he was being “pushed by so-called responses to me which contain blatant falsehoods to speak but I do not want anybody to blame me when I speak out and it becomes unpalatable. So either the attacks stop or I will defend my integrity, even if that means death.”

Response to Ken Agyapong 

His latest outburst was fueled by the Assin Central lawmaker, Ken Agyapong, who claimed that he had information on the former Special Prosecutor, including confidential health records that could destroy him.

The accusations, including many others, have angered Mr. Amidu, a resigned Attorney General in the Mills administration, who has a history of pouring out his anger in long stinging epistles against his critics.

Mr Agyapong had claimed that Mr Amidu has a medical history that he has hidden from the public after he went to Germany for healthcare.

But Mr Amidu denied the accusations insisting that the MP should produce the evidence as he had never been to Germany.

Contrary to Mr Agyapong’s claims that Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga, had in his possession details of Mr Amidu’s Germany trip, he said the attribution was false as “Mahama Ayariga will never make such false allegation against me as his father.”

“He would have been ostracized by the chiefs and people of the Kusawgu Traditional Area for such blatant lie. I challenge him to get Mahama Ayariga on the phone that he had documents proving that I have been to Germany for any type of treatment or whatsoever,” he added.

Mr Amidu while in office began the prosecution of Mr Ayariga for tax evasion straining relations between the two, but the former Special Prosecutor defended the Bawku Central MP saying Mr Ayariga was his “son who coincidentally, I had to lead an investigation against because of public duty.”

Mr Agyapong had also claimed that it was former President John Mahama who asked the Bawku Central MP not to publish the said document.

But Mr Amidu shot down the assertion, insisting that the former President “is alive. He should speak to him.”

No farm, no pick-up

He said his woes began ever since he released the report on the Agyapa deal.

“I don’t know why a simple matter of Agyapa Royalties Limited transaction over which I conducted an anti-corruption assessment on the law should lead to all these lies being peddled about me.

“Yesterday, it was that I used an office pick up in farming. I have never had a farm in my life. I have never used an office pick up in my life. I have my own pickup and I never farm with it. I have my own Camry; it has done only 500 kilometres because I have to use the government vehicle [allocated].

“What is all these lies because someone has performed his professional duty and responsibility. I have said since I left [the] office that I will not grant press interviews about my resignation, I was not going to talk to the press. But I am being pushed,” he stated.

Mr Amidu, who served as a Deputy Attorney General in the Rawlings administration, said he had worked hard for his image since the days of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), therefore, he would not allow “anybody, not even the President to put that integrity into the mud.”

He accused Mr Agyapong of having a reputation of assassinating the character of every respectable person in the country, “including judges of the superior courts, so why will anybody give him credibility. But you see, he has enough money and opens a radio and TV station and those things.”

“I am a poor man who has tried to live a straight and narrow life and crusaded against corruption. He wants to destroy me. Anybody who tries to fight corruption must be aware from the beginning that corruption will fight back. All that is going on is corruption fighting back. They are demonstrating that the whole rhetoric about fighting corruption was mere rhetoric. The time for reckoning has come and nobody should push me.

He said those attacking him should remember that he has now worn his cap of ‘Citizen Vigilante’ again.

Mr Amidu also claimed that he had received threats of burglary, armed robbery and arson and had taken steps to inform the National Security Minister.

“All these threats about murdering me, armed robbery, burning my house, I’m aware. I tried to call Kan Dapaah [National Security Minister] he didn’t pick it. But I got a former National Security advisor to contact him and tell him. I know the persons involved and I can name them.  I reserve it for now.

“I put my life on the Republic of Ghana and the President of the Republic if anything happens to me. The President will be responsible for anything that happens to me. The President has a constitutional duty to protect me. I don’t need any security in my house or to follow me, and anybody who makes an attempt will have himself to blame.”

He also had some rhetorical questions for the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

“The fact that you are in government doesn’t mean that if you are dissatisfied with a report you go after the fellow. The Minister of Finance has been my friend for years. Why will I go for him?

“When I was writing the report, didn’t he come to this house? Was he not here on the 21^st of October? What did I tell him? Why is he now churning out information about me and budgets and all that? Should I come out? Let’s stop it before we wash dirty linens in public,” he asserted.

Asked if he felt threatened, Mr. Amidu said he felt safe as he ” doesn’t fear anything. To die in the cause of fighting corruption is what I started with President Jerry Rawlings since December 1981 and I’m not going to leave it because some people think they can threaten me. I don’t give a damn about that”.