The escalating public scrutiny surrounding President Mahama’s administration has ignited a fierce debate regarding the investigation into the AKSA bribery deal, initiated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP). Martin Amidu, a prominent political analyst, has penned a detailed account, meticulously reconstructing the events and highlighting the potential implications for the integrity of Ghana’s legal system.
With the investigative tools and tradecraft available to the Government of Ghana (GoG), a completed investigation docket must have been ready by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) or other law enforcement agencies in respect of other criminal aspects of the Asante Berko-AKSA-Ghana Bribery deal before the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the 7 December 2024 elections. Indeed, any responsible GoG committed to fighting graft must have been prosecuting the Ghanaian entities and individuals involved in the case at the same time that the United States Government (US-Gov) was prosecuting Asante Berko in a US court.
It is, therefore, insulting to the intelligence of the electorate for the Attorney-General to be informing the public for the first time since the John Mahama government’s ORAL investigations that the government through the Attorney-General is collaborating ‘with his United States counterparts to bring to book persons who are implicated in the bribery scheme related to the 2014-2017 power plant development contract between a Turkish energy company and the Government."
This report details the OSP’s initial investigation, meticulously documented by Martin Amidu, which began in April 2020. The investigation, initially focused on the alleged bribery scheme, quickly expanded to encompass the potential for ongoing illicit activities, driven by the US-SEC’s civil case against Asante Kwaku Berko. The initial investigation, conducted under the supervision of the Deputy Special Prosecutor, was spurred by the US-SEC filing a lawsuit in New York, a move that arguably amplified the public’s concern regarding the alleged corruption and illicit activities.
The GoG’s involvement in the case was initially described as a collaborative effort between the OSP and the FBI, establishing a preliminary framework for the investigation. However, the situation quickly diverged as the investigation progressed. The OSP’s initial investigation, which was spearheaded by Martin Amidu, began in April 2020, and it was inherited by the current Special Prosecutor, leading to a complete disappearance from the published list of cases under investigation. The OSP’s investigation, initially focused on the Asante Berko–AKSA-Ghana Bribery deal, continued under the Deputy Special Prosecutor and was eventually discontinued by the President Mahama government following the conviction by the High Court of the government’s former Chief Executive Officer for Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Sedina Attionu, whose notice of appeal had intentionally been left to lie dormant since 9 May 2024 in the Court of Appeal to be revived for hearing in February 2026 leading to her acquittal on 30 July 2026, only sycophants will fail to see the partisan nature to which the professionally impartial functions of the Attorney-General have been reduced to under this government. That is not what the mass of the electorate and I canvassed and voted for President Mahama and the NDC to assume the reins of power to execute as a government for all Ghanaians.
When an Attorney-General enters nolle prosequi and discontinues other pending cases in the courts of law against members of his political party and government to facilitate their appointment to lucrative public office positions in the government and turns round immediately to prosecute adversaries in the departed government and political party, his government and office forfeit the trust of an objective and impartial electorate who voted on 7 December 2024 for an impartial government and good governance under the 1992 Constitution.
The Asante Kwaku Berko-AKSA- Ghana Bribery deal investigation has been pending in the OSP since April 2020 without the President Mahama government insisting on a prosecution of the public officials involved upon assuming office since 7 January 2025. But upon the trial and conviction by the US Court on 6 April 2026 of Asante Berko, the chief facilitator of the bribery and corruption transaction that took place between 2014 and December 2016 under President Mahama’s previous government, the propaganda machinery of the government wants the electorate to believe that it intends to bring to book its own former appointees some of whom were reappointed after 7 January 2025 and the politically exposed family relative implicated in this second bribery deal that resembles the Airbus SE-Ghana bribery deal. That is not what the mass of the electorate and I canvassed and voted for President Mahama and the NDC to assume the reins of power to execute as a government for all Ghanaians.
President Mahama, unlike former President Akufo-Addo, is not a lawyer. It is, therefore, ethically disturbing to me to watch the Attorney-General sinking the Mahama government with politically partisan execution of the impartial prosecutorial function entrusted to the office under the 1992 Constitution. The Ghanaian electorate has demonstrated to every government that it cannot be taken for granted with any form of political deception no matter which political party is in government for the time being. One reaps what one sows!
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
Watch Related Video
Source: Graphic Online
