[ 2015-12-22 ]

Amidu defends Nana Addo on judgment debt payment
Anti-corruption campaigner, Martin Amidu has
jumped to the defence of the flagbearer of the
opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana
Akufo-Addo on the payment of judgment a debt in
2002.

Nana Addo [Former Attorney General] was cited in
the Sole Commissioner’s report for authorising
the payment of an additional $4.5million interest
that accrued from the payment of a judgment debt
to Delta Foods Limited.

Delta Foods sued the state for failing to pay it
after it supplied 21,000 tons of American white
maize to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in
1997 on the behest of government.

Though the court ordered government to settle the
company, the amount was paid in the year 2000.

Delta Foods later dragged government to court
again to demand for interest payments in excess of
about $4.9 million.

Meanwhile, the Judgment debt Commission called
for further investigation into the matter and
recommended sanctions for officials whose
negligence contributed to the payments.

Former Attorney General, Martin Amidu in his
recent epistle said it is clear that the NDC
government is “acting mischievously to
politicize the excellent work of the Sole Judgment
Debt Commissioner by connecting the NPP’s
Attorney-General who merely paid upon the consent
judgment the Supreme Court had refused to quash by
certiorari during the NDC 2 Government as a means
of aborting the further investigations ordered by
the Commissioner.”

“It was also clearly setting the grounds for
unwarranted political electioneering attacks on
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who had become the
Presidential candidate of the NPP for the 2016
elections against President Mahama.”

Below is the full statement:

COMMISSIONS OF ENQUIRY AND NON-POLITICAL WHITE
PAPERS: BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU

We the people of Ghana in solemn declaration and
affirmation of our commitment to probity, and
accountability gave to ourselves the 1992
Constitution in the expectation of integrity and
good governance by the President and other elected
representatives. But the conversion of the
excellent report of the Sole Judgment Debt
Commissioner into a political White Paper for
electioneering purposes to be published under the
supervision of the office of the Attorney-General
demonstrates how low we have come in this country
in terms of the only constitutionally established
office within the executive branch which by
hallowed tradition and practice is to defend and
uphold the liberty of every individual and the
rule of law in its quasi-judicial decision making
process.

I have returned to this subject for two reasons.
First, to deal briefly with the introduction of
extraneous matters not forming part of the
Commissioner’s report and attempts to amend,
vary, modify and rewrite the Commissioner’s
report in some parts, to show that it does no
credit to the legal advisors to the Government as
it converts them into conduits of a corrupt
political elite in Government contrary to their
constitutional mandate specifically provided for
under Artilce 88 of the Constitution. Secondly, to
use the historical records to show that the Delta
Foods Ltd case which the political White Paper is
at pains to wish away and turn into the
responsibility Nana Addo Dankwa Akofu-Addo of the
New Patriotic Party is one of two examples of what
happens when Vice-Presidents or Presidents usurp
the Attorney-General’s functions under the
Constitution. This contrasts with an
Attorney-General who abdicates his constitutional
responsibilities and becomes a mere conduit for
executive actions in the issuance of political
White Papers contrary to the Constitution.

Introduction of extraneous matters to the
Commissioner’s report into the White Paper –
Pages 3 – 7 of White Paper

The Bankswitch Ghana v Government of Ghana and
whatever decision was given at the alleged
Permanent Court of Arbitration was not part of the
enquiry and report of the Sole Commissioner on
Judgment Debts. The Government and the
Attorney-General nonetheless found it
“honourable” to hood-wink Ghanaians by
smuggling it into a White Paper on the
Commissioner’s report pursuant to Article 280.
This is a deliberate and inexcusable cover up of
this Government’s complicity in compounding the
Bankswitch Ghana arbitral award or debt which I
had advised the Government as its Attorney-General
in 2011 to settle because it had a very bad case
to prevail at any arbitration. The Government and
the Attorney-General also find it “honourable”
to smuggle into the White Paper on the
Commissioner’s report the Balkan Energy Ghana
case which was argued by me as the
Attorney-General before the Supreme Court and
conclusively decided in favour of the Republic and
was not the subject of the Commissioner’s
enquiry. As for the attempt in the White Paper to
water down the Supreme Court’s decisions to
favour the Government’s foreign friends and
surrogates such as Waterville and Isofoton after
the Supreme Court’s conclusive declarations and
orders on the issue of estoppel the little said
about the Government’s disingenuity on the
matter the better. I hope Ghanaians will wake up
to the fact that this is not a White Paper under
Article 280 of the Constitution but a bogus and
fraudulent NDC Manifesto White Paper masquerading
as one pursuant to Article 280 of the
Constitution. It also calls into grave question
the preamble and solemn declaration and
affirmation of the Constitution to probity and
accountability in the exercise of the
Attorney-General’s functions under Article 88
thereof.

Least I forget, first, in the Political White
Paper the Government forgot to expunge or
pretended not to have noticed in order to expunge
the kind words the Commissioner repeated about me
in his report onGbewaa Civil Engineering Co. &
Yakubu Adam Kasule v Attorney-General, etc at
pages 355 to 356 of the leaked report thus:

“….It is sad that Hon (Mr.) Martin Amidu has
been vilified for being just. He has suffered
several media bashing propelled by some faceless
people, for pursuing a just cause as a patriotic
citizen of Ghana and a good one of course. This
Commission is amazed that he remains unfazed by
such wrong attacks. The Commission accordingly
accords him the enviable esteem of a Ghanaian who
loves his country more than himself.”

The Government’s determination to obliterate any
good thing said about me (as its internal NDC foe)
in the Commissioner’s report as it did at page 5
of the White Paper would come to naught without
expunging the above commendations as well. I
demand that the Government does so for the sake of
consistency in its intolerance for alternative
views within even the NDC. Second, the Government
assumed an unconstitutional authority in the
political White Paper to overrule or reject the
definite adverse finding and recommendation (i) of
the Sole Commissioner (see page 86 of the White
Paper at moc.gov.gh). Common sense should have
informed the Government that the provisions of
Article 280(2) entrusting to the Court of Appeal
appellate jurisdiction over such adverse findings
would have been meaningless if the Government had
a first administrative review authority to
selectively overrule or reject or confirm such
adverse findings made against persons by the
Commissioner appointed under Article 278. The Sole
Commissioner’s findings are not part of “any
finding made by a commission or committee of
inquiry which is not a judicial or quasi-judicial
commission or committee of inquiry..” whose
adverse finding shall not have the effect of
disqualifying a person under paragraph (d) of
clause (2) of article 94 of the Constitution
unless it has been confirmed by a Government white
paper as stated under Article 94(4) thereof. It is
unconstitutional to tamper with this Sole
Commissioner’s adverse findings in any form in a
Government white paper – period!

Delta Foods Ltd v Attorney-General – Pages 20
– 22 of White Paper

The main thrust here is to show with documentary
evidence how the persistence of a Vice-President
to disregard the 1992 Constitution by arrogating
to himself the functions entrusted to the
Attorney-General under Article 88 of the 1992
Constitution led to the consent judgment debts and
other liabilities that became the subject of the
Sole Judgment Debt Commissioner’s report in
Delta Foods Ltd v Attorney-General. This NDC
Government refuses to accept the responsibility
for the obvious mess of the financial loss caused
to the state by its former boss and officers. With
its tongue in its cheek, it shamelessly
politicizes the obvious in attempting to reframe
and shift liability in the White Paper to a
political opponent to score cheap political and
electioneering points.

On 9th April 1999 I wrote a memorandum to the
Attorney-General, Dr. Obed Asamoah, on Delta Foods
Ltd after the Solicitor-General, Mr. E. A. Addo,
had submitted a memorandum through me to the
Attorney-General on how the mess in Delta Foods
Ltd was created and a consent judgment entered in
the High Court without the knowledge and
involvement of the Attorney-General. I wrote,
inter alia, that:




“I think having read the ruling of the Supreme
Court and looked at the file on this subject, the
handling of the Delta Food Ltd contract by the
Ministry of Agriculture and the Castle leaves much
to be desired. The supposed settlement is also
being alleged to have been reached to the
detriment of Ghana because Attorneys in this
Ministry claimed they were under instructions from
the Castle to settle the case in court. Because of
the alleged superior orders from the
Vice-President’s Office, you, the
Solicitor-General and myself were not even
consulted before the settlement was entered in
Court.

I believe that if the Attorneys who handled this
matter had handled the case professionally they
would be accepting personal responsibility for the
outcome of their actions in the settlement. But
they are passing the buck to the
Vice-President’s Office which shows that they
acted more as administrators taking instructions
from superiors than in the true tradition of the
Bar as a lawyer advising the Government.

It is in this light that I think we should be
careful of the extent to which this office takes
instructions from the Vice-President or his Office
in purely legal matters. It is said the Vice
President directed the entry into the contract
with Delta Food Ltd. He directed the settlement in
court with Delta Food Ltd which he is now trying
to have set aside. He directed that Ministry of
Agriculture should take possession of the maize
and sell it. He directs that we pay the third
party or agrees that we pay the third party. He
reviews affidavits. I think we are either putting
too much on the shoulders of the Vice-President or
he is taking on himself the duties of the
Attorney-General under Article 88 of the
Constitution. It is not a situation which is in
his own interest either legally or politically.

One of the beauties of the legal profession is the
ability of the lawyer to give his professional
opinion without fear or favour, and handle his
client’s case with utmost legal discretion but
never as a mere conduit of the client. This
tradition ought to be preserved before we become
legal messengers instead of advisers.

I am sorry I have had to set down my detailed
opinion in this matter. It is not intended as a
criticism but to ensure that in future nobody
condemns our work as the principal legal adviser
to the Republic of Ghana and its government.
Superior orders cannot avail us as an alibi.

Submitted for your consideration please.” (See
copy of the memo attached in PDF format)

Prior to my above memorandum the Solicitor-General
had passed a memorandum signed and dated 25th
March 1999 through me to the Attorney-General on
the subject “Trip by Solicitor-General to the U.
S. In Connection with Action Initiated By Delta
Foods Limited to Enforce Consent Judgment” in
which he had stated, inter alia, that:
“Following the Vice-President’s directives
regarding the above matter the Solicitor-General
left for the U. S. on 12th March 1999 with
documents from the Vice-President’s
office….” The Attorney-General and I were not
consulted about this trip. The Vice-President
simply usurped the powers of the Attorney-General
just as he subsequently tried to do when he became
President and I became his Attorney-General
leading to our parting company.

It is clear from the foregoing that this
Government and the Attorney-General were clearly
acting mischievously to politicize the excellent
work of the Sole Judgment Debt Commissioner by
connecting the NPP’s Attorney-General who merely
paid upon the consent judgment the Supreme Court
had refused to quash by certiorari during the NDC
2 Government as a means of aborting the further
investigations ordered by the Commissioner. It was
also clearly setting the grounds for unwarranted
political electioneering attacks on Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo who had become the Presidential
candidate of the NPP for the 2016 elections
against President Mahama. This is a patent and
cheap unconstitutional exercise of executive power
in the name of a White Paper against a political
opponent under the letter and spirit of the 1992
Constitution. It also contravenes the core values
of the NDC as we founded it to frown upon such
abuse of power.

History, they say repeats itself. The mess in the
Delta Foods Ltd case repeated itself in the EO
Group case when I was Attorney-General in 2011.
The Vice-President at the time (now President)
acted in concert with Dr. Oteng Adjei, (the
Minister for Energy) in by passing my legal
opinion to them on the EO Group case and smuggled
a memorandum to the President for an executive
consent to enable the EO Group to assign their
shares to a buyer. Having obtained the executive
consent behind my back they concerted by asking
Dr. Oteng Adjei to write to me to confirm a
request for indemnity from future prosecution or
action by the Republic of Ghana. In the true
tradition of the legal profession, the fact that
the President had been deceived by the
Vice-President and Dr. Oteng Adjei into granting
an executive consent, did not intimidate me as the
Attorney-General to grant the indemnity requested.
I replied to Dr. Oteng Adjei’s letter No.
SCR/ZA5/144/02 dated 22nd July 2011 in my letter
XE337/09/8 of the same 22nd July 2011, inter alia,
as follows:

“Consequently, I wrote letter No. XE 337/09/8
dated 19th July 2011 which was hand delivered to
your office and received on 20th July 2011. I am,
therefore, surprised that in your letter NO. SCR
ZA40/200/01 OF 21ST July 2011 written after my
letter of the previous day, you did not find it
appropriate to inform H. E. the President about my
letter to you, the content of which H. E. the Vice
President, your goodself and me had agreed upon on
19th July 2011.

Having informed you of the status of the EO Group
criminal case and advised you verbally and in
writing, I cannot, without committing legal
suicide, write again confirming the request for
indemnity you made in the concluding paragraph of
your letter of to-day. A photocopy of my letter
NO. XE 337/09/8 0F 19th July 2011 is annexed
herewith for your ease of reference.” (See
copies of the letters attached in PDF format)

I never granted the indemnity or closed the docket
before I left office in January 2012. My immediate
successor also did not grant the indemnity or
close the docket before he left office in 2013. It
follows that any indemnity and closure of the
docket would have been done only under the watch
of the Vice-President who had originated the
unconstitutional problem when he became the
President after the 2012 elections and thus
leaving Dr. Oteng Adjei and him alone to picks the
pieces of any political corruption allegations
that arises. Does the foregoing not make it easy
to understand how things are now being done in the
teeth of legal advice at the GNPC under the
Chairmanship of Dr. Oteng Adjei which were not
done when the experienced and veteran Ato Ahwoi
was the Chairman of that entity?

I am deliberately exposing the politicization of
the White Paper on the Commissioner’s report to
enable people capable of rational and
dispassionate reasoning see the inherent dangers
any Government faces when it usurps the powers of
the Attorney-General or when an Attorney-General
allows his office to be usurped or abused by the
Presidency. It also underscores what happens when
a Government acts deliberately and covertly to
cover political corruption by besmearing other
coordinate organs of Government and political
opponents in a manner inconsistent with or in
contravention of the constitution.

Nana Akufo-Addo had nothing to do with the Delta
Foods Ltd consent judgment and resulting
accumulated interests. It was the handy work of
Vice-President Mills usurping the
Attorney-General’s office. He carried this bad
habit of usurping the Attorney-General’s
functions into his Presidency which I resisted as
the Attorney-General with all the constitutional
authority at my disposal and proved in the Supreme
Court decisions in the Attorney-General,
Waterville &Woyome case, and the Attorney-General,
Isofoton & Forson case which the White Paper also
tries again to bastardize. The subsequent consent
judgment and damages for wrongful termination of
appointment with interests granted in my favour in
the High Court, (part of which still remains
unpaid and unfulfilled) shows a parallel with the
consent judgment created by then Vice-President
Mills and others in the Delta Foods Ltd case which
the Government is running away from in the White
Paper.

The probity and accountability enshrined in the
preamble to our Constitution requires Government
to be candid with citizens instead of using covert
means and propaganda to suppress political
corruption and legal incompetence by passing the
buck to other branches of Government and political
opponents in an Orwellian Big Brother fashion.
Let’s put Ghana First Countrymen!



Martin A. B. K. Amidu



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Source - Citifmonline

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