..Jubilee House celebrates Chief Justice’s letter to Kissi Agyebeng
The Herald, has picked an exclusive report about plans to remove the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, in a few months and a petition has been submitted to the Office of the President to that effect with the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, in full support and actively participating.
According to The Herald’s sources at the presidency, the petition was submitted by Martin Alamisi Amidu, who coincidentally was the first Special Prosecutor when the office was created. He abandoned the office as a very frustrated man, but has since remained interested in its work.
His petition is titled “Re: Petition by Martin Alamisi Amidu for the removal of the Honourable Kissi Agyebeng from office as Special Prosecutor pursuant to Section 10 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act”.
Yesterday, there was jubilation inside the Presidency that, a letter from the Office of the Chief Justice, bearing the signature of Justice Gertrude Araba Asaaba Sackey Torkornoo attached to Amidu’s petition and a cover letter from President Akufo-Addo, had been dispatched to the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) for the response of Mr Agyebeng. This is to pave the way for his removal.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor was established in 2018 under the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959) to comprehensively lead the fight against corruption in Ghana. However, that objective has not been realized.
Interestingly, Mr Amidu, had to resign citing a lack of cooperation, low funding and widespread corruption in the Akufo-Addo government with the President himself, presiding as “the mother serpent of corruption” leading his family members including ex-finance minister and cousin, Ken Ofori-Atta.
Insiders told The Herald that, the petition and the two cover letters from the President and Justice Torkornoo to Kissi Agyebeng are just mere formality as his dismissal, has already been sealed by the Akufo-Addo government.
Kissi Agyebeng, hitherto darling of the President and some members of the first family, has fallen out of favour and become a pariah – an outcast despised by friends who have labelled him a “rogue” for going after Akufo-Addo government officials, over suspected cases of corruption.
The seat of government is said to be using the same plot used in the case of ex-chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, who was removed and replaced by Jean Mensa through a petition filed by Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang on behalf of some unnamed individuals citing misconduct, constitutional breaches, procurement breaches per Public Procurement Act, Act 663.
Insiders have suggested that the removal of Kissi Agyebeng, is to truncate his numerous cases of corruption investigations on the Akufo-Addo appointees.
The government is also not sure that Ghanaian electorates will vote for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), hence would not want to have Agyebeng in office to embarrass them with corruption trials, while in opposition.
He is to be removed from office before the December general election.
Since leaving office as Special Prosecutor, Mr Amidu, has never spared any effort at throwing jabs at his successor, Mr Agyebeng, who was plucked from both his lecturing job at the University of Ghana’s Faculty of Law and private law practice as a criminal and corporate lawyer running the Cromwell Gray LLP in Accra.
The petition from Martin Amidu, The Herald is informed is dated April 30, 2024, was forwarded to the Chief Justice, to establish a prima facie case against Agyebeng as a basis for his removal from office.
The Herald is further informed by its sources inside the Jubilee House, that a certain lawyer, has been pencilled to replace, Mr Agyebeng.
The letter from the presidency to the Chief Justice attached to Martin Amidu’s petition was dated May 6, 2024.
This is said to be a fallout from an attempt by the Presidency, to have Mr Agyebeng sacked, but by having him resign voluntarily which he refused to heed.
Martin Amidu’s petition, The Herald learnt had mentioned arbitrary arrests of personalities such as Cecilia Dapaah, the ex-Water and Sanitation Minister, whose house millions of dollars, Pounds sterling and other foreign and local currencies were evacuated sometime last year by the Special Prosecutor after she reported theft to the police by her helps some of their relations.
Also mentioned in the petition by Martin Amidu, is the arrest of the Chief Executive of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Kofi Ofosu Nkansah, who was arrested in January by the OSP on charges of distributing money to delegates ahead of the NPP parliamentary primary in the Asante Akyem Central constituency in the Ashanti Region.
He described the arrests of Cecilia Dapaah and the NEIP boss as arbitrary, saying it is a violation of citizens’ rights and a ground for the removal of Agyebeng, whom he also accused of not providing timely information to the public and on the operations of the Office.
He accused the OSP of holding a press conference and bringing the administration of justice into disrepute by talking about how the judiciary was handling its cases in derogatory terms.
The ex-Special Prosecutor, also accused his successor of procurement breaches, including employment breaches among others.
Reports are that the plans to remove Agyebeng, were firmed up since last year with claims that he had met with the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, who had assured him he was going to keep him in office to prosecute Akufo-Addo appointees, if he wins the 2024 elections.
