“Toothless Bulldog” Amidu Turns Agyapa Corruption Probe Into Dog Fight With Mahama

Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has riveted his attention on ex-President John Dramani Mahama in the infamous Airbus bribery scandal and has practically deviated from his latest task of possibly starting prosecutorial steps against Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta for his role in the fraudulent Agyapa Royalties deal which he did a risk assessment on last week.

The latest bark at John Mahama is in the form of a strange challenge by the Special Prosecutor to the former President “ man up, wise up” for interrogation over the Airbus bribery scandal.

In a statement released today, Martin Amidu dared ex-President Mahama to “man up, wise up and be brave enough to come with two lawyers of your own choice to be cautioned and interrogated by this office”.

The obsession to “interrogate” the ex-president is coming amidst his scathing corruption assessment risk confirmed the Agyapa minerals royalties deal as a deliberate “create, loot and share scheme” by Ken Ofori-Atta and his willing conspirators within the Akufo Addo administration.

Amidu’s sudden interest in diverting attention from the Agyapa deal he is probing to the Airbus deal that has practically hit a dead-end has aroused curious questions of credibility around the Special Prosecutor, particularly when he had announced publicly that he was not going to interrogate the former President because of the upcoming elections in December.

The UK Serious Fraud Office which revealed the almost US$ 5 million bribery scandal around the Airbus saga had not mentioned names of the government officials which appeared to have facilitated the crooked deal, and attempts by Martin Amidu to indict the few suspects had been stonewalled, including an attempt to invite Samuel Mahama, the junior brother of ex-President Mahama for interrogation on the saga.

The OSP is also seen to be chasing a biased agenda in his insistence to rope in the Airbus scandal into the stinking Agyapa Royalties corruption case.

The former President recently responded to Martin Amidu’s insinuations by calling his action the stuff of “stupidity.” 

“Nobody asked you about Airbus. If you [Martin Amidu] were man enough, present Agyapa and do a report on Airbus separately. And I will come as a man and answer you on Airbus. If you think I’m indicted in Airbus, accuse me directly,” Mahama fired back when it turned out Amidu had infused Airbus into the Agyapa risk assessment report.

“But because he is a coward and he knew they were going to discuss Agyapa, he put a paragraph on Airbus to equalise the discussion. I mean what stupidity is this?” Mahama had asked.

Political observers see Amidu’s latest bark at Mahama as an attempt to rally back into the good graces of President Akufo-Addo, who had appointed him as OSP in 2018, aiming to use Amidu’s pent-up anger to hound appointees of the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration for alleged cases of corruption.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has given the clearest indication that Amidu’s corruption assessment which has left the administration smarting with the damning exposition is the last straw in the Jubilee House’ relationship with the OSP.

 Immediately after the report came out, President Akufo-Addo issued a statement indicating the Jubilee House’s reluctance to see Ken Ofori-Atta in the corrupt light Martin Amidu had painted him in the Agyapa deal.

Thereafter, government high-ups and NPP bigwigs have flayed Amidu for what they say is a shoddy analysis of the Agyapa scandal.

Amidu’s spotlight on Mr. Mahama is seen by critics as a fall-back attempt to project his office as doing the job it had mostly failed to do-chasing corrupt government officials.