Betty Mould Is Hot

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 19 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould Iddrisu has been compelled by prevailing circumstances and pressures from within her own party to explain why she has been unable to prosecute members of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

In a statement issued in Accra yesterday, she reaffirmed her commitment to President Mills’ principle of justice within the confines of the law.

Despite unnecessary calls from members of her own party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including a former Supreme Court judge, Justice Kpegah, for her to quickly take cases involving members of the NPP administration to court, Betty the ‘sweet-talker’ said she is following the principles of thoroughly investigating cases rather than pushing them to court only for them to fail the litmus test.

Mrs. Mould Iddrisu said President Mills has clearly spelt out her duties, and believes she is acting in the best interest of the state and all the people involved.

She noted with emphasis that “even the NPP who made much noise about jailing NDC ministers when they came to power were unable to do so with ease despite the rhetoric”, stressing the cases involving Tsatsu Tsikata and Mrs. Rawlings needed to be both thorough and fair rather than to make mistakes with haste.

Despite talk about several allegations of wrong-doing established by the transitional team against former government officials in the NPP administration, the embattled Attorney-General noted that the investigators have not yet been able to furnish her office with findings for prosecution.

This, she said, was due to the fact that “most of the ministries and agencies that were due to provide information and evidence for prosecution are still investigating these matters to ensure that prosecutions did not encounter any hitches”.

Mrs. Mould Iddrisu also indicated that despite a memo from the Chief of Staff to the various ministries to provide necessary evidence to investigate 49 corruption cases arising out of the transitional team’s report, only the Transport Ministry has responded.

She however noted that state investigations departments such as the CID, the BNI and the SFO which are expected to feed her office with facts have so many challenges hampering their work.

The Attorney-General has thus described as unfortunate some of the criticism about her competency.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Betty Mould Iddrisu has recently come under a barrage of criticism from within her own party about her inability to prosecute former ministers of state alleged to have mismanaged or misappropriated public funds.

Some of her critics have attributed her inaction to her close relation with some of them - a suggestion she has denied.
She has however indicated that her office is working together with other state institutions on a government White Paper to commence prosecution on the recommendations of the Ghana @ 50 Commission against Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby and Former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani.