Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has said the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa exhibited political immaturity and naivety when he asked Special Prosecutor Nominee, Martin Amidu a question based on a book written by former Attorney General, Obed Asamoah.
According to him, that move by Hon. Ablakwa was not smart and could only come from an inexperienced politician.
The MP who’s a member of the Appointment Committee quoting from page 465 of a book authored by former Attorney General, Obed Asamoah under who Mr Amidu worked which is titled “Political History of Ghana 1950-2013, the Experience of a Non-Conformist”, asked the latter what he made of a damning verdict passed on him by his former boss when his choice as a running mate to candidate Mills was described as “unproductive move” and a candidate who will not be beneficial to the ticket.
In response, Mr Amidu known for being blunt said “Mr Chairman in the first place Dr Asamoah is not my boss, he did not pay my bills through the law school. He was called to the Bar, I was called to the Bar. He didn’t appoint me Deputy Attorney General, I was appointed Deputy Attorney General before he came there and I served under Aikins, Nana Tandoh, Mr Forson came for six months before he was asked to act, and we are colleagues. Except that he was Attorney General and I was the deputy and therefore I knew my place and worked with him, that doesn’t make him my boss. You’re reading a self serving book, in which he wanted to be the Vice Presidential candidate, he was by-passed, the Presidential candidate saw his deputy more competent and excellent than him.”
“…In any case the law reports demonstrates that while he was doing that, I was going to court. He didn’t train me, and if you say he’s erudite, that’s your comment. I regret that you brought his book and you want to knock my head against his. In his recent interview he described me as a man of honesty, but you see, you people you’ll collapse your old people by reading these things and I’ll react this way. Dr Asamoah calls me, even when I was Attorney General and he was accused, he called me, Amidu, did this happen? and I told him it didn’t happen. So I’m on good terms with him, but because of vetting we’re doing this, I don’t think it’s good. I would have let the question pass but the public will understand it otherwise.
But speaking on Peace FM Wednesday, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako stated that there was no basis for Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa to have asked such a question.
“Bringing the issue about the Obed Asamoah’s book was not a smart attempt, why bring that thing there? Unless you’re too politically inexperienced and naive I see no need for that issue to have been raised on that particular platform at that material moment. You expected the man to just clap for you? Someone has written a book which will be around for the next thousand years commenting on someone’s character, the person hasn’t even read the book and so has not done a rejoinder, but that sticking thing in the book is out there.
Now someone decides to bring it on that platform and amplify it at the level of the Appointment Committee, it gives it more currency. The human element in Amidu was brought to the fore, you the questioner, what was Ablakwa’s motive in asking the question, what was the value of that question relative to the purpose of that committee”?