I have read a statement from the Office of the Speaker of Parliament with reference number OP/SPK/K1/33 dated 28 May 2024 signed by one Peter Bamfo (Head-Speaker’s Communications Unit) “To All Media Houses” in which the “Speaker request Mr. Amidu to do the honourable thing and withdraw his statement and apologise unreservedly to the Speaker of Parliament…within seven days from the date of the release of this rejoinder.”
First and foremost, the statement addressed to all media houses cannot be termed a rejoinder to my publication dated 26 May 2024. Secondly, I have done nothing for which I need to withdraw, retract, and apologise for within seven days to Mr. Bagbin who is dissipating the public purse needlessly in Dubai for health challenges which are treatable or manageable in Ghana.
I stated, inter alia, in paragraph 10 of my publication dated 26 May 2024 which Mr. Alban Bagbin purports to challenge that:
“The Chairman of the NDC, a person presumed to be of high moral character and proven integrity permitted himself to be appointed by a self-confessed corrupt NDC Speaker of Parliament onto the Board of the Parliamentary Service despite a glaring and impermissible conflict of interest under Article 284 of the 1992 Constitution..”
I also asked a question in paragraph 18 thereof, inter alia, as follows:
“Asiedu Nketiah and John Mahama, did your self-confessed corrupt Speaker of Parliament not meet the President in Dubai in 2021 (sic) before he returned to Parliament to turn a closed eye to his own determination that rejected the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government?”
I believe that it is due to one of Mr. Bagbin’s health challenges that keeps him indoors when it attacks him apart from his main oncological challenge that has led Mr. Alban Bagbin since 2021 to needlessly dissipate the public purse in Dubai several times in a year which has affected his cognitive abilities to make him claim repeatedly in his media statement dated 28 May 2024 that I wrote that he Mr. Bagbin “had secretly met His Excellency the President in Dubai, in United Arab Emirate,. ” I can only sincerely apologize to my readers for the accidental slip in typing the words “Dubai in 2021” instead of “Dubai in 2022” in the question in paragraph 18 of my article dated 26 May 2024 and published on 27 May 2024, which I hereby apologize to them for.
I never claimed anywhere in my publication that there was a secret meeting with the President in Dubai in 2021 (the year intended which was accidentally typed as 2021 was 2022) as my words in the question which I have quoted above testifies to. My question was directed to Asiedu Nketia and John Mahama. Mr. Alban Bagbin has no problem with my description of him as a “self-confessed corrupt Speaker of Parliament” but raises issues with the question that has no reference to any “secret meeting” for which I am still waiting for an answer from Asiedu Nketiah, John Mahama, and the NDC.
By Mr. Bagbin’s statement to all media houses he implicitly admits that he is a self-confessed corrupt person which means that he has no reputation whatsoever that can be defamed by me.
The proof of Mr. Alban Bagbin’s confession of being corrupt which he made in the media more than once are available in audio and online for everybody who wishes to listen to or read to do so.
My publication threw a challenge to the NDC, Kissi Agyebeng, and Joy FM for which I am waiting for a response so that I may provide further proof of my contentions. Interestingly,
Joy FM which refused to publish my article dated 26 May 2024 was the first source to publish the threat to me by Mr. Bagbin which dishonourably inserts the word “secretly’ into the question I asked therein. Mr. Alban Bagin, you are abusing the office of the Speaker by lending that Office to the NDC to intimidate me through your dishonourable attribution to me of words I never used in the question I asked in my publication.
I wish to state for the avoidance of doubt that Mr. Bagbin shall never have a withdrawal and apology from me for words I never used in my article published in the media on 27 May 2024 which are variously true, justifiable, and constitute fair comments or questions on public matters pertaining to a public officer, the Speaker, in the public interest. Mr. Bagbin, a self- confessed corrupt person is forcing words I did not write in my article down my throat. If Mr. Bagbin wishes to abuse the 1992 Constitution as he has already done abundantly in my perception and understanding of the constitution to cite me for Contempt of Parliament, all I can tell him is that I will want a public hearing so that I can let Ghanaians know whom Mr. Bagbin truly is, which is consistent with his own self confession of corruption. I shall invoke my constitutional right to remain silent unless such a contempt hearing in abuse of the Speaker’s power is open to the public. I do not mind going to jail in Nsawam or anywhere on account of Mr. Bagbin’s dishonest and corrupt misrepresentation of the question I asked in my article. It will make me a martyr of the 1992 Constitution whose death in Nsawam or anywhere will be on Mr. Bagbin’s hands and conscience. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!
Mr. Bagbin, if you think my article defames you in anyway, defend your integrity and honour by issuing a writ of summons and a statement of claim against me in a court of law so that I can prove to the whole world that the things I wrote against the NDC in which you where mentioned as its self-confessed corrupt Speaker are either true, justifiable, and constitute fair comments or questions on public matters on the conduct of a public officer, the Speaker, in the public interest. An action in defamation with you as the plaintiff will provide me the opportunity to subpoena your passport, other records, and cross-examine you for Ghanaians to know that the resources you are needlessly dissipating from the public purse for your numerous trips to Dubai for your oncological and other cognitive challenges that are treatable or manageable in Ghana’s Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and other hospitals in Ghana while thousands of ordinary Ghanaians cannot afford the cost of simple dialysis treatment is discriminatory, unsupportable, and needless. The several millions of local, and foreign currency dissipated on you alone to and in Dubai from the public purse would have purchased hundreds of dialysis machines for treating thousands of ordinary and needy Ghanaians.
Mr. Bagbin, I wish to assure you that your friend Asiedu Nketiah whom you recruited onto the Parliamentary Service Board, John Mahama, Kissi Agyebeng, and Joy FM cannot use you and your position as the Speaker of Parliament to intimidate and frighten me form defending the 1992 Constitution.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu