Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Martin Amidu has said he’s not in competition with investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, in their crusade against corruption.
According to him, although the work done by Anas was commendable, the modus operandi and motive was inappropriate.
Mr Amidu has since Monday been firing salvos at the award-winning investigative journalist, accusing him of being in bed with the government to undermine other arms of government.
But Anas and his Tiger Eye PI have denied Mr Amidu’s allegations, challenging him to provide evidence to that effect.
On Wednesday, Anas responded to Mr Amidu, saying he would not be deviated from his course by Mr Amidu’s attention-seeking side-tracking.
Sections of the public have also raised eyebrows over Mr Amidu’s allegations, suggesting he was envious of Anas’ fight against corruption.
But speaking on Accra-based Citi FM Thursday morning, Mr Amidu stated that he was not in competition with Anas and that his only motive was to expose the conspiracy between the government and Anas.
He said, “Anas is not my age mate. There’s no competition between me and Anas. What I am against is for any citizen of Ghana to lend himself to the executive for surveillance of fellow citizens. It is unconstitutional. It’s not allowable; and particularly to do to it in contravention of law and the companies code and for the government to cover it up. If indeed he was not commissioned by government the government will not allow him to breach all these laws and give him protection.”
Standing strongly by his previous allegations and calls by Anas that he should back them by evidence, Mr Amidu noted that it was not for him to provide evidence.
“I don’t need to prove because I have demonstrated in my write up that he has worked for the government on a number of occasions. He himself has admitted it in his response to me two days ago so once I have been able to establish that he’s been a consistent agent of the government, it is for him to prove that on this occasion he was not a government agent.”
Mr Amidu added that, “What evidence do I have to give. You don’t expect me to go and bring a letter. It’s a covert operation…a covert agent when he’s exposed will deny. If on this occasion he’s saying that he is not, I’m saying that the onus is on him to say that on this occasion we didn’t. And I’m saying that he’s doing it for pay. It’s not for free.”
Mr Amidu also challenged Anas to disprove his assertion that government had not given him a biometric passport for the purpose of his operations.
“A biometric passport given to a person who is not an employee of the government is testimony of the fact that he’s a covert agent. And he hasn’t responded to that. He should deny it,” he said.
