[ 2016-11-21 ]

Ayine showed his incompetence when he critised me – Amidu
A former Attorney General (AG) and anti-corruption
campaigner, Martin Amidu, has lashed out at the
current Deputy AG Dominic Ayine questioning his
legal competence and knowledge of the law.

Unethical, inexperienced and scandalous were some
of the words Mr. Amidu used to describe Mr. Ayine
following the Deputy AG’s calling him a “liar
and a perjurer in the media”.

Mr. Ayine had alleged that Mr. Amidu had lied
under oath as he questioned the former AG’s
credibility as far as his attempts to retrieve the
GHc 51 million judgement debt from embattled
business man, Alfred Woyome, is concerned.

But Mr. Amidu, in his latest article on the raging
GHC51 million judgement debt saga, said,
“surely, as one who is properly trained and who
has practiced under competent seniors since his
call to the Bar, he would have known that as an
officer of the Court it is unethical to resort to
the press to criticize a Court decision one has
argued and lost.”

Mr. Amidu also slammed Mr. Ayine as a loose cannon
who has failed to learn any lessons since taking
up the post as Deputy AG.

“The ethical practice is to go on an appeal or
apply for a review of the decision should those
options be open, or to shut up. It is scandalous
and a bad example for a Deputy Minister of Justice
who has also sworn to uphold the Constitution to
take a cue from his President and castigate the
Court and its decision, including the beneficiary
of the decision,” Mr. Amidu pointed out.

“Since when did it become the ethical practice
of any responsible and respected lawyer committed
to the rule of law, independence of the judiciary,
the independence of the legal profession,
constitutionalism and democracy to resort to the
print and electronic media as the medium of
arguing an appeal or review of the decision of a
Court of law he has lost?”

Mr. Amidu also noted that Mr. Ayine failed to back
his claims in the court of law as he had the
opportunity to apply to cross-examine him in the
court of law.

“Ayine called me a liar and a perjurer in the
media. He gets all the opportunity if he were a
seasoned lawyer to prove it in Court. He failed
even to apply orally to the Court to cross-examine
me, and to put me to strict proof as stated in
their own affidavit. His action was due either to
inexperience or incompetence as a practicing
lawyer.”

Find Below excerpts of Mr. Amidu’s article.

The Deputy Minister for Justice, Dominic Ayine,
who appeared for the Attorney-General and argued
against my application, was and is an officer of
the Court.

Surely, as one who is properly trained and who has
practiced under competent seniors since his call
to the Bar, he would have known that as an officer
of the Court it is unethical to resort to the
press to criticize a Court decision one has argued
and lost. The ethical practice is to go on an
appeal or apply for a review of the decision
should those options be open, or to shut up. It is
scandalous and a bad example for a Deputy Minister
of Justice who has also sworn to uphold the
Constitution to take a cue from his President and
castigate the Court and its decision, including
the beneficiary of the decision.

Since when did it become the ethical practice of
any responsible and respected lawyer committed to
the rule of law, independence of the judiciary,
the independence of the legal profession,
constitutionalism and democracy to resort to the
print and electronic media as the medium of
arguing an appeal or review of the decision of a
Court of law he has lost?

Dominic Ayine, the Deputy Minister for Justice,
instead of exercising a right to review of the
Court decision, calls me a liar in the media. (The
shallow-educated Minister of Communications who
struggled to pass his bachelor of medicine and
surgery degree exams and whose practice of
medicine since graduating has been as Deputy
Minister and later Minister for Communications
called me by the same Government-rehearsed phrase
the previous Saturday and got a fitting response).
Dominic Ayine charges me with lying on oath
because of my affidavit in support of my
application with his stated accusation: “So he
is the one who is lying on oath to achieve his
evil political agenda of tarnishing the image of
his successor in office.” But the statement
exposes Ayine’s lack of good lawyering skills
and raises the question of whether he studied
under any eminent and seasoned senior before his
appointment as Deputy Minister for Justice.

Let us examine what happened. Martin Amidu deposes
to an affidavit which Ayine thinks constitutes
perjury. The Attorney General who is Ayine’s one
year senior at the Bar deposes to an affidavit in
person in opposition together with a con cheque
and receipt. Ayine’s Attorney General’s
affidavit was served on me only in the Court room,
which led me to tell the Court that I was ambushed
with the affidavit in Court. In my experience one
does such things to compel the other party to ask
for an adjournment to study the affidavits served
in Court. The Court offered me an adjournment but
I refused and deprived the Government of its
suspected intention to postpone the hearing to
after 7th December 2016. Then Ayine’s
inexperience became manifest and visible.

Instead of Ayine insisting to cross-examine me
upon my affidavit, he proceeded to argue and ask
that certain portions be struck out. I was amused.
Ayine called me a liar and a perjurer in the
media. He gets all the opportunity if he were a
seasoned lawyer to prove it in Court. He failed
even to apply orally to the Court to cross-examine
me, and to put me to strict proof as stated in
their own affidavit. His action was due either to
inexperience or incompetence as a practicing
lawyer. Ayine then runs to the only place he is
competent in showing how knowledgeable he is as a
lawyer rather than before the Supreme Court –
the print and electronic media – and he charges
me with being a liar. This is so pathetic a
display by a Deputy Minister of Justice of the
Republic of Ghana.

Where have the ethics of the legal profession
gone?

Ayine lost his court-room opportunity to prove his
assertion that I was lying. My sources, which he
lost the chance to probe, are in both the office
of the Attorney General and the office of the
President because I have served in Government for
such a long time and have maintained credible
sources since the PNDC days. Ask the former
Chairman of the PNDC and founder of the NDC who is
my moral compass in the NDC for my capabilities
before calling me a liar. No lies!
Will Ayine wish to tell Ghanaians where he was and
what he was doing when I was PNDC Deputy Secretary
for the Upper East Region (from which we both
hail) in February 1983? Where was Ayine and what
was he doing when I became the PNDC Deputy
Attorney General in 1988? Above all, should Ayine
have a problem with his recollection then perhaps
his elder brother, Billy, who worked with me as a
member of the CDR at the time can help him answer
my questions. Ayine may also wish to ask his
mentor and my personal friend Mr. Akolgo, former
PNDC Secretary for the Frafra District for help.
Or perhaps he should talk about my honour and
integrity to Mr. Atuguba, the former lawyer of his
elder brother, Billy, whom I persuaded as then
Acting PNC Secretary for the Upper East Region in
1984 to represent him.

People who know me closely, including my teachers
and lecturers, know that I have throughout my life
stood for the principles I believe in and in my
own conscience and it is strange that Ayine, whose
family has benefitted from my upright character,
insults me because the President has set him
against me.

Ayine, said further on classfm radio that they do
not fear Amidu and continued: “[Martin] Amidu
and Ace Ankomah and the others, they all know that
Marieta and I will never take a bribe.” I
conduct my cases in Court as plaintiff since I
ceased to practice as a lawyer from January 2012.
Ace Ankomah just came to talk to me after the
hearing of my application. He is not my friend but
I am open to talking to all promising younger
lawyers who show promise like Ace, and he does not
deserved to be linked up with my one-man vigilante
activism.

I have never said anywhere that Ayine or Marietta
take bribes. I do not know what worried Ayine to
make such a statement or whether there is such a
cap that fits them. Is there anything he suspects
I know or ought to know about him and Marietta
concerning bribe taking? He has put me on the
enquiry! But I told Ayine in a written statement
in 2013 when he was basking in his new appointment
to take his time and to learn the ropes of the job
in the Attorney General’s office before
beginning to run, else, he may break a leg. Ayine
does not appear to have learnt any lessons and is
still talking like a loose cannon. Ayine! Whether
you and Marietta take bribes or not, what I can
tell you is that I am the longest served political
appointee in the Attorney General’s office. I
have told you already that most of the Chief State
Attorneys in that office started working with me
in 1988 as Deputy Attorney General when you had
not entered the University of Ghana and so it
would be wise to respect them and learn from their
experience. Ayine, your arrogance and insolence to
both your seniors and other attorneys has led to
most of them disliking you and you will know how
much you are disdained there once a new Attorney
General is appointed when the Government loses
this year’s elections.

Source - Citifmonline

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