Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said he has no regret appointing Martin Amidu as the country’s first Special Prosecutor, despite their fallouts.
President Akufo-Addo insists the office was adequately resourced to undertake its work, despite the latter’s claim of inadequate resources and interferences in his work by the President.
Speaking at the swearing-in of the new Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyabeng at the Jubilee House on Thursday, August 5, 2021, President Akufo-Addo said Kissi Agyabeng will be given all the support he requires.
According to him, he had no reservations when the Attorney General and Minister for Justice nominated him to be the second person to occupy the office.
He said per Kissi Agyebeng’s qualifications, “it is clear that he is eminently qualified to occupy the office.”
“In spite of the unfortunate events that led to the departure of the first occupant of the office, I do not regret making that appointment. On my part as the president of the republic, I ensured that the office was adequately resourced to enable it to carry out its mandate.”
“I am however consoled by the often-cited statement that there is no need of crying over spilled milk. So when the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame on April 16, 2021, nominated Mr. Kissi Agyebeng through Section 13, clause 3 of Article 959 for consideration as the second occupant of the office, I accepted the nomination because his qualifications are clear that he is eminently qualified to occupy the office.”
The new Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyabeng on his part, says he will do his best to help fight corruption.
“Mr. President, we are confronted by two pandemics, one is a health crisis, and its outlook is very macabre. The other is not a health crisis, but it is also a pandemic, and that is corruption and corruption-related activities.”
“The zeal with which your administration has approached the fight in respect to the health crisis, I also see and respect the other pandemic which is corruption, and as I come into this office, I pledge to the people of Ghana as I said two weeks ago, that I am going to work assiduously to suppress and repress corruption.”
“I said two weeks ago in Parliament that I will not be naive to assume that I’m coming to stop corruption, but as much as possible, my office is going to drive it down and repress it to its barest minimum. When my name was mentioned as the nominee for this position much was said about my nomination, but nothing negative was said about my competence; everything was about my youthfulness, but if that is so, Mr. President, I can only express the appreciation of the youth to you, that you have given youthful persons the opportunity to serve.”