Former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu has said the Ghanaian authorities have known about the alleged Asante Berko–AKSA bribery deal since 2020, insisting that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) began investigating the case more than six years ago.
According to Mr. Amidu, the OSP opened investigations into the alleged bribery scheme in April 2020 after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (US-SEC) filed a civil case against Asante Kwaku Berko over alleged payments to Ghanaian government officials in connection with a Turkish energy company’s power plant project.
He said the OSP had access to the U.S. case on April 13, 2020, the same day the SEC proceedings became public. Mr Amidu, who was special prosecutor at the time, said he subsequently directed officials of the OSP to commence a preliminary investigation.
“The OSP started investigations into this case in April 2020 and was in collaboration with FBI office in Ghana before I resigned my office in November 2020 as the special prosecutor,” he said in one of his recent epistles.
His comments come after Mr. Berko was convicted by a U.S. court on August 6, 2026, over his role in the bribery scheme. Mr. Amidu questioned why the Ghanaian government was only announcing its intention to pursue persons allegedly implicated in the Ghanaian side of the transaction after the U.S. conviction.
He described the development as “insulting to the intelligence of the electorate,” arguing that Ghana should not have needed to wait for the United States to conclude its case before taking action domestically.
“The GoG is not a junior partner or an adjunct of the United States of America government for the GoG to wait until a U.S. Court convicts a US-Ghanaian citizen, Asante Kwaku Berko, on 6 August 2026, for bribery and corruption of GoG public officials before announcing to the Ghanaian public on 8 August 2026 what the government through the Attorney-General intends doing,” he said.
Mr. Amidu said his office had taken the allegations seriously in 2020 after reviewing the 37-page SEC complaint. He said he had directed the Head of Investigation to open a preliminary investigation into the allegations against Mr. Berko and his alleged accomplices.
“This office has an obligation to open investigations into the allegations of suspected commission of corruption and corruption-related offences against Asante K. Berko and his accomplices in Ghana in accordance with its mandate,” he quoted himself as having written in April 2020.
He said the investigation continued after his resignation and was subsequently inherited by the current special prosecutor.
However, Mr. Amidu alleged that the investigation later disappeared from the OSP’s published list of cases.
“The OSP investigation into the Asante Berko–ASKA-Ghana Bribery deal continued under the Deputy Special Prosecutor and was inherited by the current special prosecutor only to disappear later from the published list of cases under investigation,” he said.
He argued that, given the information and investigative tools available to Ghanaian law enforcement agencies, the investigation should have progressed significantly before the National Democratic Congress (NDC) returned to power in January 2025.
“With the investigative tools and other tradecraft available to the GoG, a completed investigation docket must have been ready by the OSP for prosecution or other law enforcement agencies investigating other criminal aspects of the Asante Berko-ASKA Bribery deal before the NDC won the 7 December 2024 elections,” Mr Amidu stated.
The former special prosecutor also pointed to the information contained in the US-SEC complaint, saying it identified a politically exposed person and two Ghanaian government officials allegedly connected to the approval and pricing of the power plant project.
The SEC complaint, according to Mr. Amidu, alleged that Mr. Berko arranged for between $3 million and $4.5 million to be funnelled through a Ghana-based intermediary company to bribe government officials responsible for approving the project.
Mr. Amidu said the identities of persons potentially implicated could not have been reasonably missed by professional investigators examining the U.S. complaint.
“No professional investigator and prosecutor could have missed the identities of the persons implicated in the suspected crimes from the portion of the US-SEC civil complaint against Asante Berko dealing with ‘Related Entities and Individuals,’” he said.
He further accused the current government of using the latest development for political purposes, arguing that the Attorney-General’s approach to prosecution had become partisan.
He said it was particularly troubling that the government was now promising to pursue former appointees connected to the previous Mahama administration, despite the OSP having investigated the matter since 2020.
Mr. Amidu described the government’s position as “a tale for idiots and not the wise electorate,” arguing that some persons allegedly connected to the matter had subsequently been reappointed under the current administration.
He also accused the Attorney-General of undermining public confidence through what he called a “politically partisan execution of the impartial prosecutorial function” entrusted to the office under the 1992 Constitution.
Mr Amidu said the Ghanaian public deserved a clear explanation of what happened to the domestic investigation after it was initiated in 2020.
He warned that the electorate would not accept what he described as political manipulation in the fight against corruption.
“The Ghanaian electorate has demonstrated to every government that it cannot be taken for granted with any form of political deception no matter which political party is in government for the time being,” he said.
