<<Print>>

President John Evans Atta Mills has met with the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Martin Amidu, over the minister�s recent allegation of crime against some ministers in the government and demanded him to substantiate his claims. At the end of the meeting, held behind closed doors at the Castle, Mr Amidu failed to mention the names of anybody in government or substantiate his claims of �gargantuan crimes� purportedly committed by members of the government. According to a government source, the Justice Minister, who had said that he had never begged the President Mills to be appointed Attorney-General, pleaded with the President to temper justice with mercy, particularly in the face of the impending Cabinet reshuffle. Mr Amidu, on January 11, 2012, signed and issued a statement titled, �Response to Malicious Libels against the Attorney-General�. In the statement, he claimed, among other things, that �... colleague minister of state who perceived my integrity and professionalism as a lawyer was a threat to the concealment of gargantuan crimes against the people of Ghana in which they might be implicated�. Mr Amidu again alleged, �Fairness requires that NDC criminals be prosecuted by me as well, as an independent and impartial Attorney-General, albeit appointed by the NDC Government.� In apparent response to the NDC Communications Team, he had said, �The ethics of the legal profession and the Bar, of which I am the leader, are more sacred to me than that of young and inexperienced members of a Communication Team of the NDC who are absolutely ignorant of the functions of an Attorney-General under the Constitution of Ghana.� President Mills was said to have stated clearly at the beginning of the meeting that his aim was to get to the bottom of the matter and ensure that any member of his administration tainted with corruption was made to face the full rigours of the law. However, at the meeting with the President and some Ministers of State last Friday to name the ministers mentioned in his statement, Mr Amidu, who could not use the platform created by the President to name those alleged to have perpetrated the crime, rather pleaded for leniency. The Attorney-General was said to have pleaded for pardon for making sweeping statements.