�We�ve Performed Better With Trial Cases Than The NPP� :A-G

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice has stung critics who say her outfit has been slow in prosecuting former government officials who have allegations of corruption hanging over their heads. Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrisu, in an unequivocal and unusual style, stated that those officials will certainly be dragged to court to answer questions on how they expended public funds in their tenure as public functionaries. She asked her critics to compare her outfit�s record in hauling former government officials to court to the same period in the last regime. According to her, �in the first year of the NPP all they were able to do was to prefer the charges.� She added that, the prosecution of those officials against whom the charges were preferred �did not start until the second year.� Madam Mould-Iddrisu in an interview with Citi Breakfast Show host, Bernard Avle flaunted that they (her outfit and the NDC government) �have gone far than the NPP did.� The A-G and the Mills� led administration have come under incessant fire from their own party members that they were being too lenient with ex-government officials who are alleged to have squandered state resources. The biggest of the critics being NDC founder and former President, Jerry Rawlings who has on countless occasions scolded his own government for not demanding accountability from officials of the erstwhile Kufuor-led NPP government. But Madam Mould-Iddrisu, under whose Ministry the prosecution of the alleged corrupt officials falls, refused the claim that the government has been sluggish in demanding accountability. �Within these eight or nine months, we have two former Ministers on trial, a former Foreign Affairs Minister and a former Information Minister on six to nine counts each. Each of them including financial loss caused to the State�we also have a Managing Director of the National investment Bank on trial. We have put the Issa Mobila alleged murderers on trial.� She asserted. The A-G, also a former Director of Legal and Constitutional Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, said the fact that she does not publicize her work progress should not be misconstrued for incompetence. She said the dictates of her office discourage her from commenting on pending cases. �As the Attorney-General, I do not want to comment on pending cases.� She said. Betty Mould Iddrisu explaining her hush, revealed that her position puts her �in a very peculiar situation, I do not want to be accused at this level of making remarks about cases that are subjudice�that�s why I have been silent.� On the issue of her outfit losing too many cases in a short period of time, the Attorney-General defended her outfit stating that the department has very qualified and highly trained professionals. In the case involving the former Foreign Affairs Minister, Akwasi Osei Adjei, she said �we were the ones who returned the passport to him.� She explained that at the point where the passport was seized, �we couldn�t have allowed him to travel because he (Akwasi Osei Adjei) had serious questions to answer� about how he applied the tax payers� money in importing several bags of rice from India. Madam Mould-Iddrisu admonished people to look at the context of the cases and then make informed decisions, �not some of the wild decisions made recently.� Elaborating on the circumstances surrounding the interdiction of the Chief Accountant of the Youth and Sports Ministry, Mr. Adim Odoom, and the Ministry�s Chief Director, in the infamous �Muntaka Chichinga-Pampers Scandal� and the ruling of the trial judge, Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu told Citi FM that the case which started off with Mr. Odoom saying he was a whistle blower, was only referred to the appropriate quarters. According to her, what the judge did was to refer the case to the Civil Servants� Council for it to act on the matter consequently. Responding to questions on the Tagor and MV Benjamin Cocaine case, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu said she inherited the case and the appeal in the case had been filed long before she assumed office as the A-G. She said after taking the driver�s seat as government�s attorney, she could only wait for the outcome of the case. Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu therefore asked people to refrain from making hasty pronouncements on the competence or otherwise of the A-G without placing the issues in their proper context.