Special Prosecutor Martin A.B.K Amidu is demanding an unqualified apology and retraction of the defamatory publications Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, Member of Parliament (MP) for Aumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency made and caused to be made against him in both the print and electronic media.
According to the Special Prosecutor, the MP is alleging and insinuating that sums of money paid to or expended in favour of him by Government pursuant to the terms of settlement and the consent judgment and order(s) by the High Court were judgment debts dubiously paid.
“I am by this letter, therefore, demanding an unqualified apology and retraction from you, Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, of your defamatory statements and publications about me alleging the dubious payments of judgment debts to me as the Special Prosecutor within seven days. You are to also publicly acknowledge in the said apology and retraction that the detailed figures to be paid to me pursuant to the Terms of Settlement and Consent Judgment were the subject of a non-disclosure agreement between your then Government and me that was why the agreed figures were not included by your Government in the Terms of Settlement and Consent Judgment,” he said in his letter.
On 12th July, 2019 the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta in answering questions in Parliament, was reported to have stated that the Government had paid over GH₡280 million since it assumed office in 2017 out of the nation’s judgment debt which stood at over GH₡679 million.
The Minister of Finance in answering those questions did not mention the names of the institution or individual persons to whom the alleged judgment debts were owed or paid.
In spite of the refusal or failure of the Minister for Finance to identify the organizations or persons to whom the alleged judgment debts were paid when demanded a breakdown of the particulars of the payments on the floor of Parliament, Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, chose to call and address a press conference outside the floor and chamber of Parliament, where he had the immunity to mention his name among others.
“I have never been paid any money by any Government in my official capacity or because of my position as the Special Prosecutor. Your intentional, malicious and deliberate defamatory words used to describe any payments to me of any part of the outstanding orders of the Court given on 4th September 2014 were understood by ordinary and right thinking members of the public to mean and you intended them to mean that the Government unlawfully had colluded with me in my capacity as the Special Prosecutor to dubiously pay me some money and other benefits resulting from Court orders,” Martin Amidu stated.
“The words you used in describing my supposed dubious collusion with the present Government to satisfy outstanding orders accepted and left by your Government also expressly and by innuendoes created in the minds of right thinking member of the public that I lacked the high moral integrity to be the Special Prosecutor. The cumulative effect of your interviews to the press and which you intended to be carried on both the print and electronic media were maliciously, deliberately and knowingly intended to bring my hard won reputation as a person of high moral character and proven integrity earned in decades of dedicated service in several public offices into disrepute in the eyes of right thinking persons in the society,” a portion of the letter stated.
“Should I not hear from you within the next seven days I will be compelled to advise myself as to the proper action to take to vindicate my hard won reputation which you have intentionally, maliciously and gravely injured, and brought into disrepute,” he added.
Read attached a copy of his letter to Hon.Cassiel Ato Baah Forson
