‘I never hounded Betty Mould out”

Nana Akufo-Addo, the 2008 presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has described as unfortunate, malicious, and convenient lie the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu’s statement that she was hounded by him to resign as the acting head of the International Law Division at the office of the Attorney-General in 2003.

Mrs Mould-Iddrisu is reported to have said in an interview with Accra-based Radio Gold on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 that Nana Addo when he was the sector minister at the time was instrumental in her resignation from the office of the Attorney-General.

“Nana Akufo-Addo personally said to me in many occasion that I was too a prominent NDC member to work with him at the ministry. He personally hounded me out of the office and I am sure Nana will never deny this,” Mrs Iddrisu is reported to have said on the program.

In a press statement released in Accra shortly after the allegation, the office of Nana Akufo-Addo, disclosed that the former Justice Minister at the time resisted calls to throw Mrs Iddrisu out from the office.

“Mrs Mould Iddrisu was the wife of the former Defence Minister in the previous NDC administration, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu. This fact led to some lobbying from some quarters for her to be reassigned to another portfolio within the civil service.

…Nana Akufo-Addo resisted such calls and defended his decision to maintain her at post on the ground that he had no reason to believe that her political affiliation was affecting either her professional judgment or her competence. Indeed, Mrs Mould Iddrisu was given additional duties in charge of the de-confiscation of assets,” the statement added.

According to the statement, not only did Mrs Mould Iddrisu continued to act as the head of the International Law Division during the entire two year tenure as the Attorney-General, Nana Addo, also left Mrs Mould Iddrisu behind at the Attorney-General’s office when he left in March 2003 to take up his new responsibilities as foreign minister.

The statement said Nana Addo subsequently gave the latter a glowing reference letter to enable her secure a job at the commonwealth secretariat in London when he accepted she requested for a reference letter.
“Apart from giving her an excellent written reference, Nana Akufo-Addo personally lobbied the then Commonwealth Secretary General, Don Mckinnon, on her behalf, as he would have done for any other competent Ghanaian seeking an international position,” the stamen retorted.

Continuing, the statement said “Unlike the culture of partisan cleansing that competent Ghanaians in the public service have experienced under the current Mills administration, Nana Akufo-Addo stood firm to his principles that insofar as the Constitution of the Republic gave every Ghanaian the right to join a political party of their choice, he was not going to relieve any officer serving under him of their position solely on the basis of their political party membership, affiliation or sympathies.
For him, the only relevant consideration was their competence and professionalism and so long as they did not allow their political sympathies to affect their competence, professionalism and judgment, he would work with them.

Thus, he worked closely with Mrs Mould Iddrisu and all the other heads of department he came to meet in the ministry, and she was still at post when he left the Attorney-General’s office for the foreign ministry two years later.”