Former Special Prosecutor has accused President Nana Akufo-Addo of sacrificing the dismissed Minister of State for the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen, for political expediency.
Martin Amidu said the dismissal of Mr Adu Boahen should have taken place in 2018. Again, if the President was serious about his fight against corruption, Mr Adu Boahen would not have been promoted from Deputy Minister in the first term to a Minister of State during the second term of President Akufo-Addo.
“The President who was already under pressure from rebel members of his majority caucus to remove Adu Boahen from office for the economic mess caused by the President’s management of the country, chose to sacrifice him for political expediency,” he said.
This comes on the heels of President Akufo-Addo terminating Mr Adu Boahen’s appointment after being sighted in investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ documentary dubbed ‘Galamsey economy.’
In the said documentary, Mr Adu Boahen said that Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia needed $200,000 as an appearance fee to meet prospective investors.
Mr Adu Boahen is said to have told the undercover investigators who posed as investors that Dr Bawumia would also require some positions from the investor for his siblings to get his backing and influence in establishing a business in Ghana.
However, Mr Amidu, explaining the reason for his assertion, said that the “alleged suspected corruption offence for which Charles Adu Boahen’s appointment was terminated on 14 November 2022 was committed on 8 February 2018 in his capacity as a Deputy Minister for Finance under the 7th Parliament and Government of the Fourth Republic whose tenure ended on 6 January 2021.”
He further stated that “the suspected corruption on 8 February 2018 was known to the Government through Kennedy Agyapong who had obtained a copy of the videotape and did not make a secrete of it to the Government. Nonetheless, Adu Boahen was paid his end-of-service benefits for his services to that Government.”
According to Mr. Amidu, although the documentary was recorded in 2018, with government having a copy, “The President nominated Charles Adu Boahen for approval by Parliament as Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance under the 8th Parliament and Government of the Fourth Republic in January 2021.”
He added that during the vetting period, Tiger Eye PI, on the other hand, failed to confront Parliament about his eligibility.
According to him, the excuse given by Tiger Eye PI “that Kennedy Agyapong had intercepted the videotape on the 8th February 2018 suspected corruption by Adu Boahen is spurious, naive, and untenable, to be told only to the marines.”
“In this information technologic and communications age, no experienced covert investigation agent such as Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Tiger Eye PI would put all its eggs in one basket by having one original video record after the 8 February 2018 event without spiriting a back-up or pack-ups into the cloud.”