Akufo-Addo never interfered with Amidu’s work – Mike Ocquaye Jnr

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo never influenced the work of Martin Amidu when he was the Special Prosecutor, Ghana’s High Commissioner to India, Mike Ocquaye Jnr, has said.

According to him, all Akufo-Addo called for was for the principle of natural justice to play out in the matter of the corruption risk assessment of the Agyapa deal in which the Special Prosecutor accused the Finance Minister of wrong doing.

He explained that it was only fair and reasonable that whoever has been accused of wrong doing to be given the chance to explain or respond to the accusation.

Therefore, he said, the president’s request that the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta be given a hearing in relation to the Agyapa deal could not have been described as interference.

Speaking on the New Day programme with Johnnie Hughes on TV3 Tuesday November 24, Mike Ocquaye Jnr said “All president Akufo-Addo said was that because of the rule of Natural Justice, of which Martin Amidu as a lawyer knows, fairness and the ability to be able to give your side of the story he says allow the Finance Minister to have his input.

“So the Finance Minister goes to your house to go and give you his inputs and somebody misinterprets that to mean interference.”

The first occupant of the Office of Special Prosecutor resigned his position on Monday, November 16, citing a number of reasons.

“The events of 12th November 2020 removed the only protection I had from the threats and plans directed at me for undertaking the Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions anti-corruption assessment report and dictates that I resign as the Special Prosecutor immediately,” he had stated in his resignation letter to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

“I should not ordinarily be announcing my resignation to the public myself but the traumatic experience I went through from 20th October 2020 to 2nd November 2020 when I conveyed in a thirteen (13) page letter the conclusions and observations on the analysis of the risk of corruption and anti-corruption assessment on the Report On Agyapa Royalties Limited Transactions and Other Matters Related Thereto to the President as Chairman of the National Security Council cautions against not bringing my resignation as the Special Prosecutor with immediate to the notice of the Ghanaian public and the world.”

President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo in a statement reacting to these allegations denied the claims of Mr Amidu.

“Your accusation of interference with your functions simply on account of the meeting the president held with you is perplexing.

“In exercise of what you considered to be your powers under Act 959, you had voluntarily proceeded to produce the Agyapa Report.

“The president had no hand in your work. Without prompting from any quarter within the Executive. you delivered a letter purporting to be a copy of you report to the president.

“The purpose of presenting a copy of the Agyapa report to the president is decipherable from paragraph 32 of your letter to the president in which you indicated that you hoped the report will be ‘used to improve current and future legislative and executive actions to make corruption and corruption-related offences very high risk enterprise in Ghana’,” the president said in a statement responding to the accusation against him by Mr Amidu who resigned from his post on Monday.