General News of Thursday, 11 November 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-11-11Amidu had good reason to label Akufo-Addo ‘Mother Serpent of Corruption’ - Mahama
Former President Mahama and President Akufo-Addo
• The NPP government is paying lip service to the fight against corruption
• This is the view of former President John Dramani Mahama
• He says the 'Mother Serpent of Corruption' label for Akufo-Addo is merited
The pioneer occupant of the Office of Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, had good
Read full articlereason to issue a harsh critique of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Ado before resigning from office in 2020.
As someone whose appointment to the new anti-corruption portfolio was celebrated by the government, it must have been enormous pressure to acquiesce to corrupt practices that Amidu left office under controversial circumstances.
This is the view expressed by former President John Dramani Mahama who agrees with Amidu’s labelling of President Akufo-Addo as the ‘Mother Serpent of Corruption.’
“This government is just paying lip service to the fight against corruption, just lip service. Look at the Special Prosecutor’s office, someone like Martin Amidu is a lawyer, a one-time deputy Attorney General and a senior lawyer of his standing.
“And for a person of his stature to resign and say the President is the ‘Mother Serpent of Corruption,’ it is a very serious charge because he has his basis. Several attempts were made to obstruct him from certain cases he was investigating that is why he made those pronouncements,” Mahama added.
“If your own Special Prosecutor describes you as the Mother Serpent of Corruption, what else do you need anybody to say about your fight against corruption?” he quizzed.
The former president spoke in an interview on Accra-based Power FM and TV XYZ on Tuesday, November 8, 2021, as part of his ‘Thank You Tour’ of the Greater Accra Region. Accra was the final leg of the 16-region tour to thank stakeholders for their support in the 2020 elections.
In late November 2020, Amidu who had resigned his position as SP wrote an open letter to the President in which he expressed shock that the man he trusted as the ‘Moses of anti-corruption,’ turned out to be ‘the mother serpent of corruption.’
“When I met the President on 23rd October 2020, I received the shock of my life when he demanded that I took no further action on the Agyapa royalties transaction anti-corruption assessment report for another week.
That was when it was divinely revealed to me that the President whom I trusted so much for integrity only looked like the innocent flower of anti-corruption but he was really the mother corruption serpent under the innocent-looking flower," he added.
The ex-Special Prosecutor literally identified President Akufo-Addo and his Finance Minister as the brains behind the botched Agyapa deal which he described as the greatest corruption plot in the history of the country.
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