Anti-corruption campaigner, Martin Amidu believes President John Mahama’s appointment of a new Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Commissioner a few weeks to his handover of power is an indication of the imbibed corruption within the outgoing National Democratic Congress government.
In Mr. Amidu’s view, “impunity and corrupt behavior once internalised is difficult to change over-night.”
President Mahama on Tuesday swore in Joseph Whittal as the new CHRAJ Commissioner, a move which the incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has described as being duplicitous given prior agreements made during transition team meetings.
Concerns have been raised that this move may be an attempt to stifle the NPP’s anticorruption mandate given the role of CHRAJ in ensuring transparency.
The NPP has since served notice of its possible intent to review the CHRAJ Commissioner and other last-minute appointments made by the outgoing administration.
In an article following the events, Mr. Amidu felt he has been vindicated in his calls to Ghanaians to vote our the NDC because of its perceived symbiosis with corruption that would have left the country bankrupt.
The former Attorney General indicated that “one would have thought that the massive defeat of the Looter Government never witnessed in the annals of Ghanaian history would make it circumspect of how it handles the last days of its dying pangs as a Looter Government so that the Independent Prosecutor may have mercy upon them. Unfortunately impunity and corrupt behavior once internalized is difficult to change over-night as subsequent events show.”
“What is going on in the transition to the new Government reinforces my conviction for my pre-election call upon the electorate to vote out the incumbent looter Mahama Government to stop the plundering of the public purse and get our looted monies back.”
“When I look at how the Looter Government is preparing its final exit after its miserable and unprecedented defeat at the polls, I am left in no doubt that Ghana would have been bankrupted with another four years of this looter Government in power,” Mr. Amidu stated.
Mr. Amidu also questioned Mr. Whittal’s commitment to fighting corruption given his handling of the Mabey and Johnson cocaine case and the alleged “whitewashing” of the Ford Gift saga.
“My kinsman is being appointed the Commissioner for the CHRAJ when after wasting the public purse up to the Supreme Court to contest whether or not the suspects in the Mabey and Johnson case could be investigated for corruption he chose to go to sleep after promising he was going to investigate using the trove of credible evidence I sent CHRAJ in the case as Attorney General.”
“This same kinsman of mine whitewashed the Ford Expedition Saga even though he knew the CHRAJ had no jurisdiction over the President because the Attorney General could not prosecution him even if he were found culpable by CHRAJ,” the former AG noted.
Find Mr. Amidu’s full article here
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