Leave Agyebeng alone, he's done more than you did - Kofi Bentil to Martin Amidu

Lawyer Kofi Bentil has called for support for the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, who he says is on track in discharging the anti-corruption mandate of the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

Bentil adds that even though it is early days yet, the current SP deserved all the necessary support to

Read full articledo more and to help fight graft within and outside of government.

The IMANI Africa Vice President also urged that detractors of the SP especially his predecessor, Martin Amidu, must leave Agyebeng to do his work.

“He [Martin Amidu] had everything he needed to do the work – and nobody has everything perfectly – he opted to go the way he went and left the office. We now have Mr. Kissi Agyebeng there; Kissi has done more than Mr. Amidu did.

“Mr. Amidu should not be sniping at him, making such commentary. We all make commentary, we all criticize, we all say what we have to say.

"But you and I and everybody else should be careful not to make Martin into somebody who will be running commentary and then we will sit back and then be analyzing what Mr. Agyebeng is doing because of what Martin Amidu is saying. I absolutely will not join that bandwagon,” Bentil said on JoyNews’ PM Express.

Amidu's most recent epistle, as he calls them, was directed at the SP over his investigation into tax evasion issues involving the Labianca Group of Companies with the complicity of some high-profile officials of Customs.

Amidu had reason to refer to the report as "hollow, without mandate and unconstitutional."

According to him; “the report seriously violates the statutory mandate of the OSP under the 1992 Constitution.” He said the report is also inconsistent with and contravenes Act 959 and the 1992 Constitution."

Bentil is, however, not impressed with Amidu's posture and wants Agyebeng to stay the course and keep his eyes on the ball.

“Mr. Kissi Agyebeng has done far more than Mr. Martin Amidu did in that office, let’s leave him alone. We will not lead Mr. Kissi Agyebeng to be walking in the shoes of Mr. Martin Amidu; he brought his own shoes, he’s going to do things his own way.

“Mr. Kissi Agyebeng is a lawyer of significant repute and specifically a criminal law expert, so I don’t think that anybody should be sitting down and running commentary when he hasn’t even finished his work. He’s on a course, he hasn’t finished,” he said.

“I urge Mr. Agyebeng to focus and none of us should go on an analysis of what Mr. Martin Amidu is saying because we’ll be wasting our breath. Let us see what we can do to make progress. I think Mr. Agyebeng is making progress,” he added.

SARA/PEN