Stop The Lies �Judgment Debt Commission Warns Media

THE JUDGMENT Debt Commission is sending a strong warning to a section of the media who are using the commission as a conduit to publish damaging and false stories geared towards soiling the image of the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Martin Amidu to stop else face its wrath. According to the commission, �it has noted with great concern and trepidation attempts by a section of the press to damage the reputation of the former Attorney-General & Minister of Justice, Mr. Martin A.B.K. Amidu using this Commission as a conduit, albeit falsely.� At an emergency press conference called yesterday, counsel of the commission, Kofi Dometi Sokpor on behalf of the Sole Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau made particular mention of two publications in the media. These purported publications according to Mr. Sokpor sought to portray that �Mr. Martin Amidu petitioned this Commission with information heavily loaded with falsities and blatant gargantuan lies. This Commission does not know how and where the paper gathered this false information.� He cautioned that, the commission has the powers of the high court to impose any sanction on any media house and that, �The paper should note that what it is doing constitutes contempt of this Commission,� and therefore should halt these false publications. ��If the paper has an Agenda it wants to advance, it should not draw this Commission into it to avoid the unpalatable.� Mr. Sokpor clarified and stated that, it was not Mr. Amidu who brought to the notice or attention of the Commission the judgment entered in favour of Gbewaa Civil Engineering Co. & Yakubu Adam Kasule as a result of a purported 'Terms of Settlement'reached between Mr. Kasule and former Attorney-General Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu. According to him, the issue of the judgment entered in favour of Kasule based on the said 'Terms of Settlement' was one of the Judgment Debt cases brought to the attention of the Commission by the Attorney-General's Department when the Commission requested for records on all Judgment Debts entered against the state from 1992 to date on the inception of the Commission. He said the commission noticed that the two former Attorney-Generals namely; Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu and Mr. Amidu had signed certain documents concerning the matter; including some State Attorneys at the Attorney- General's office. �In line with the Commissions mandate, the Commission invited the two former Attorneys-General and other State Attorneys who had something to do with the case involving Gbewaa Civil Engineering & its Managing Director, Adam Kasule to provide answers to some questionnaire sent to them. �The Acting Solicitor-General was also invited to brief the Commission on the matter. The fact that Mr. Martin Amidu and Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu were not invited to publicly face the cameras does not mean that the issue has been swept under the carpet. �The fact also that the Judgment entered in favour of Mr. Kasule & his Company is that of a Court of competent jurisdiction does not mean that it automatically falls outside the mandate of the Commission. �The Commission is looking into all Judgment Debts and Akin Matters from 1992 to date. The Judgment in favour of Mr. Kasule is therefore one of such cases and this Commission shall issue a report on it.� He intimated that, �The Commission also wants to state that it is not in all the cases that witnesses were made to appear publicly before the Commission. Where the documents before the Commission were clear and unambiguous, the Commission did not invite anybody to appear publicly to explain. �This happened in several of the cases considered by this Commission including the Woyome case, which this Commission is going to report on. The media is advised to ensure that it does not use this Commission as a 'conduit' to advance the personal interests of anybody. The True spokesman could have verified the information it obtained on the Kasule case from the Commission if it did not have any agenda against anybody.�