Governments must stop interfering in A-G’s work - Ayikoi Otoo

Isaac Yeboah Politics Jun - 17 - 2013 , 13:59 3 minutes read

A former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Ayikoi Otoo has called for governments to stay their hands off the work of the A-G to ensure that that delicate office is fortified to do what is right.

Again fortifying that office also means getting an A-G who is strongly willed and has courage of his/her conviction to say that an action is right or wrong.

Ayikoi Otoo made the recommendations on Citi FM on Monday while commenting on Friday’s unanimous decision by the Supreme Court upholding former A-G and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu’s claims against the payment of what he had argued were fictitious judgement debts.

On Friday the Supreme Court ruled that some judgement debt payments to construction firm Waterville Holdings, were illegal and ordered the firm to return the amounts to the state.

Ayikoi Otoo said given all that passed ahead of the court decision, it appeared the ruling government was not interested in helping to retrieve what had wrongly been taken away from the public purse.

“You see from what Martin Amidu is saying that it appears government is not interested in pursuing the matter when it is very clear that there is no contract anywhere. Probably some people have benefitted in one way or the other. You’ve got the spirited defence of the deputy chief of staff and all kinds of people on Newsfile and other places including the deputy attorney general himself supporting the views of Woyome and all that.”

He said for pursuing his conviction that something was wrong with the alleged transaction, Martin Amidu became the only black sheep and was therefore sacrificed but having the courage of his conviction, he did not stop there but proceeded to the Supreme Court and is now vindicated.

Ayikoi Otoo said on questions of law, all lower courts are bound to follow the decisions of the Supreme Court and thought the fate of the other leg of the controversial judgement debt case involving businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome is pretty much determined.

“Once the Supreme Court decides on any matter on the question of law, the lower courts are bound by the principle of precedent, they are bound to follow that one so if it is a question of law that there is no contract between the government of Ghana and Woyome and all those people, then they are bound to follow it and I think it makes the case easier for the high court to try it,” he explained.

Ayikoi Otoo insisted that the independence of the A-G’s department needs not be compromised on issues of law and that when the A-G gives an opinion on how matters should be handled, governments must respect that view and that is the only way to strengthen him, “but when you call him behind closed doors and try to tell him to pull out because of some interest that somebody might have, government might have or some bigwigs might have, you certainly do not allow him to do his work.”

“That is all there is to it, get a strong A-G to sit there, he must know his law, he must have the confidence of the workers that he is working with, the president and others should not be constantly interfering with his work and allow him to do what the law requires of him and it should be ok,” said the former A-G and Minister of Justice, who said he had personally been fighting in the corner of Martin Amidu and it isn’t as though the now acclaimed citizen vigilante fought all the battle alone.