A former African Union Anti-Corruption Advisory Board member, Daniel Batidam has described as worrying the suspension of a police officer seconded to the office of the Special Prosecutor.
Citi News sighted documents signed by the Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, querying and suspending Detective Sergeant Yaa Boakyewaa for allegedly leaking confidential information.
The Special Prosecutor also wrote to the Inspector General of Police, David Asante-Apeatu explaining that the police officer was unfit for his office.
Mr. Batidam, who also served as former President Mahama’s Advisor on Governance and Corruption said the situation at the Independent prosecutor’s office is dangerous.
“It is worrying that one year after the Special Prosecutor assumed office, things do not seem to be settled yet and why we were worried about the fact that resources that are needed to get the office properly established are still not forthcoming.”
“We are getting in these last few days, incidents emerging from the office which are making the situation a little more precarious in the sense that not too long ago, we heard reports about some staff of the office engaging in some form of theft, so to speak, that now they were engaged in buying fuel that they were not entitled to, and now this information comes up about leaking information. I think this is even more serious and should get all of us worried.”
Mr. Amidu indefinitely suspended one of his staff, Sgt. Yaa Boakyewaa, for leaking confidential information and documents to unauthorized persons.
In the letter addressed to the IGP, Martin Amidu insisted that the officer in question showed gross insubordination and impudence when she was marched to his office to sign a letter of receipt of her suspension letter.
“She continued rudely and very insubordinately and had the impudence to tell me in the presence of the Deputy Special Prosecutor, the Secretary to the Office, the acting Head of the Investigations Division, and a senior officer of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) that I had no right to address her as a Sergeant when she had been promoted to an Inspector.”
Martin Amidu in the document said after indicating to Sgt. Yaa Boakyewaa that the IGP had not communicated her supposed promotion formally to him, she “gave me a good dressing down and threw the letter on a table in my office.”
Last week, a list of 25 cases supposedly being pursued by the Office of the Special Prosecutor went viral on social media, with some persons named in the cases raising objections about their culpability in the said cases they were named in.
Although the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Mrs Ofori-Kwafo denied that the list was authentic, it was widely reported in the media with some wondering how the list leaked from the office.
But Martin Amidu indicated in the documents submitted to the IGP over the incident gave indications that the list was fake and the creation of PW/D. Sgt. Yaa Boakyewaa.
His letter to Sgt. Yaa Boakyewaa requesting that she explains why she shouldn’t be reprimanded for the conduct said: “none of the files in the memorandum were petitions submitted to this Office as you falsely and maliciously presented them to be.”
“By virtue of your conduct in converting purely confidentially collected intelligence by this Office which had not been discussed “with the Special Prosecutor for any further action” into petitions received by the Office, you facilities or leaked or enabled the divulging of those intelligence collections of this Office to persons not authorized to receive them while creating the impression that the collected intelligence constituted petitions received by this Office from the public,” Martin Amidu indicated in the letter to the embattled office.
‘Sgt. Yaa Boakyewaa morally unfit for my office’
Martin Amidu stated in his letter to the IGP that, he had discovered that the said officer had in the past been involved in a sex tape controversy.
“…That did not make her a fit and proper person of integrity and morality to have been seconded to this Office whose mandate requires that exhibition of the highest degree of morality, integrity and honour.”
He, however, said the BNI is vetting Sgt. Yaa Boakyewaa as expected by the Special Prosecutor Regulations, 2018 and he was waiting for the official report from her vetting.