Civil Society Group, The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability, ASEPA is demanding the removal of Martin Amidu as Special Prosecutor over what they described as “incompetence”.
A report from the group copied to President said the failure of Martin Amidu to complete a single case over the past 30 months justifies their claim of incompetence.
Executive Director of ASEPA, Mensah Thompson explained that the various issues coming from the office of the Special Prosecutor raise fundamental questions about his competence.
He stated that the Office also returning unused funds to a government clearly shows there is enough support for their work but they are still unable to execute their mandate.
“…On the basis of incompetence, we believe that a number of issues emanating from the Office of the Special Prosecutor raise fundamental questions about the competence of Mr Martin Amidu if the Office of the Special Prosecutor has returned unused allocations back to the government means that government has given the Special Prosecutor enough money which they couldn’t even use and they have to return it.”
The group believes the output of the Office of the Special Prosecutor is minimal.
“So they are getting the needed support from the government but unfortunately the output is very minimal, in fact since 2018 we have not seen a single productive investigation done by his office, a single prosecution done by the SP… we have sent a copy of our report to the President we except the Presidency, with the report given the government with the proper assessment of the office of the Special Prosecutor and performance of Martin Amidu…”
Mensah Thompson said they want the President to use his discretion to keep or remove Martin Amidu from office base on the assessment they have provided.
“The president should use his discretion whether to keep Martin Amidu in office or not. Per the law as it stands you cannot change him and appoint a new person but because his position is like a high court charge or Appeal court judge the … of Article 146 to commence impeachment proceedings against him if the President feels that he needs to get him out and that is what we want…”
Many have also raised concerns about the work of the Special Prosecutor arguing that the office is yet to leave up to the expectations of Ghanaians.