Amidu: Nolle Prosequi for NDC Friends, Persecution for NPP Foes

Former Special Prosecutor Martin A.B.K. Amidu has accused President John Mahama’s government of using the justice system as a political weapon, warning that Ghanaians will not be fooled by what he describes as selective and partisan prosecutorial conduct.

In a detailed statement issued on 9 August, Martin Amidu said the Attorney-General’s office had lost the trust of the electorate by treating politically connected individuals differently from political opponents.

“The electorate did not vote massively for the John Mahama government to be manipulated with partisan, selective, and political propaganda narratives about fighting corruption, galamsey, and other crimes as though Ghanaians are unthinking beings.,” he wrote.

Martin Amidu, who served as Ghana’s first Special Prosecutor, pointed to what he called a clear pattern of political interference in prosecutorial decisions.

He alleged that the Attorney-General had entered nolle prosequi to discontinue pending cases against members of the governing National Democratic Congress, allowing them to take up lucrative public appointments.

At the same time, he said, the government was aggressively pursuing cases against political adversaries from the previous administration.

“When an Attorney-General enters nolle prosequi and discontinues other pending cases in the courts of law against members of his political party and government to facilitate their appointment to lucrative public office positions in the government and turns round immediately to prosecute adversaries in the departed government and political party, his government and office forfeit the trust of an objective and impartial electorate who voted on 7 December 2024 for an impartial government and good governance under the 1992 Constitution,” Martin Amidu stated.

He continued: “When a Deputy Attorney-General is directed to personally lead the prosecution of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, a political adversary, not for mining without a licence (galamsey) but for his company assigning its duty to extract minerals from its allotted mining concession, and then is missing in action to defend the conviction by a High Court of the government’s former Chief Executive Officer for Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Attionu, whose notice of appeal had intentionally been left to lie dormant since 9 May 2024 in the Court of Appeal to be revived for hearing in February 2026 leading to her acquittal on 30 July 2026, only sycophants will fail to see the partisan nature to which the professionally impartial functions of the Attorney-General have been reduced to under this government. That is not what the mass of the electorate and I canvassed and voted for President Mahama and the NDC to assume the reins of power to execute as a government for all Ghanaians.”

AKSA Bribery Case ‘Mysteriously Disappeared’

The former Special Prosecutor focused much of his criticism on the handling of the high-profile Asante Berko-AKSA bribery scandal.

He revealed that he had ordered the Office of the Special Prosecutor to open investigations into the matter in April 2020, shortly after US authorities filed a civil complaint against Asante Kwaku Berko, a dual US-Ghanaian citizen.

Martin Amidu said the investigation continued under his successor but “mysteriously disappeared” from the published list of cases under investigation.

He questioned why the government had waited until after Mr Berko’s conviction in a US court on 6 August to announce it would collaborate with American authorities to prosecute those involved.

“The Government of Ghana is not a junior partner or an adjunct of the United States government,” Martin Amidu wrote.

He argued that a “completed investigation docket must have been ready” before the NDC won the December 2024 elections, and accused the government of using the case for political propaganda rather than genuine accountability.

Warns Government

 Martin Amidu warned that the government’s approach to prosecutorial conduct would have consequences at the ballot box.

“The Ghanaian electorate has demonstrated to every government that it cannot be taken for granted with any form of political deception no matter which political party is in government,” he stated.

One reaps what one sows

He urged President Mahama, who is not a lawyer, to take note of how the Attorney-General’s conduct was damaging the administration’s credibility.

“It is ethically disturbing to me to watch the Attorney-General sinking the Mahama government with politically partisan execution of the impartial prosecutorial function entrusted to the office under the 1992 Constitution,” Martin Amidu wrote.

Neither the Office of the Attorney-General nor the presidency had responded to Martin Amidu’s allegations at the time of going to press.

The former Special Prosecutor resigned from his position in November 2020 after serving for less than three years.