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Former Attorney General Martin Amidu yesterday gave a rare insight into the latest judgment debt debacle when he recalled how Deputy Minister of Information Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto pleaded with him through a telephone call to pay an amount of $1.3 to a petitioner even when the case was still in court. �Hon Okudzeto spoke to me when I was in office to pay this money. I told him that I won�t even if he knew the people,� Mr Amidu said, adding, �He (Ablakwa) called me to say why didn�t we pay the money to Isotofon� as far as I�m concerned he was�� His intervention yesterday on Oman FM came when the demand for a judgment debt by a foreign company, Isofoton, has joined the litany of other politicized debts in the country in a cacophonous manner. Interestingly, Okudzeto Ablakwa is the lead advocate for the payment of the money to Isotofon, a Spanish company claiming that its contract with the state was wrongly abrogated. Mr. Ablakwa broke the Isofoton judgment debt issue on Joy FM News File programme last Saturday, saying that some past government officials, particularly the former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani, could be held liable for causing financial loss to the State. However, unknown to Ghanaians, the deputy Minister had been fronting for Isotofon with calls to ministers to pay the alleged judgment debt of $1.3million.The deputy minister confirmed speaking to Mr Amidu when asked by the radio station. Apparently dazed by the turn of events, Mr Ablakwa was fumbling with words when reacting to the former Attorney General�s revelations. Ablakawa�s Double Standards Mr. Amidu said but for the untruths being peddled by the local representative of the company, Anane Forson and Okudzeto Ablakwa�s dirty propaganda, he would not have responded, especially since he had been implored by the Council of Elders of the party not to speak on radio. He was not charitable with Ablakwa when he questioned his authority in calling him directly when that should have been done through his sector minister. Okudzeto, he continued, �called to say �why don�t you pay the money to Isofoton��. Asked by the host whether indeed the deputy minister was pleading on behalf of the petitioner Mr Amidu said, �As far as I am concerned he did.� Mr. Amidu questioned the sense in asking the plaintiff to come for a settlement of the $1.3 million when the matter was still in court. �Why did you not allow the courts to decide,� he queried, adding that �it is an international business transaction which must be laid before Parliament.� On Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu�s role in the matter, he recalled how she went ahead and settled it. �Betty went ahead and commissioned a group of professionals to investigate whether there was a valid contract or not. One month after that, she settled and yet they paid this professional group more than $400,000. Who has caused that loss?� he asked. �I do not want to get involved in petty politics. I have promised the Council of Elders I would not speak on radio. I know about Isotofon more than anybody. Let us share ideas. Why would an AG pay when the issue is an international business transaction on which the Supreme Court has ruled?� he asked. He said if because he was out of their way they wanted to pay, �let them go ahead�. �I am not Ablakwa. My children are older than him. He is not a full minister. He should have passed through his sector minister who would minute to me. Is it right for a deputy minister to call the AG to pay a debt while he has a minister?� he asked. According to him, Ablakwa rendered the former Information Minister, John Akologu Tia, almost useless. Continuing to descend upon the deputy minister, Mr Amidu asked, �Who is he to be petitioned?� The former Attorney General accused the deputy minister of throwing his weight about and, as he put it, �undermining his minister. He sidestepped his minister and was pleading for the payment. It is not right. He makes himself a holier than thou person on radio.� Counseling Mr. Ablakwa, he said, �He is a young man. Let him take responsibility as deputy minister. He is usurping the authority of the substantive minister.� Mr. Amidu had an admonition for the NDC when he told the leadership that when it allowed deputy ministers to undermine ministers, �you cannot have a credible system�. He frowned upon the trend when, as he put it, a mature Information Minister who had seen life was subjected to the machinations of a deputy minister as Ablakwa was doing. The deputy Information Minister, he said, was giving a negative impression about the NDC and that could impact negatively on the electoral fortunes of the party. �I am telling him today. Let the NDC listen. People are fed up with the lies he (Okudzeto) is telling them,� he said. Mr. Okudzeto, when he called into the programme, said, �It is true that I called him. The local representative of Isotofon will confirm he sent a petition to me.� He however denied that he asked Mr. Amidu to pay. �I had received the petition as a member of government. Indeed I found out later that the petition had been sent to other ministers. What difference does it make whether I called him or directed the petitioners to him? If I cannot call him, who else can I?� he responded to the question as to why he called the AG and did not direct the petitioners to him directly. The deputy minister claimed to have received a petition from the company�s representative regarding the ill-treatment they allegedly received at the hands of the previous government, a petition he said was sent to other ministers.