The Akufo-Addo-led government is only paying lip service to the fight against corruption, former President John Dramani Mahama has said.

According to Mr Mahama, asking whistleblowers to provide evidence before probing alleged corrupt acts is not the way to go as a government.

Speaking in an interview on Accra-based TV XYZ on Monday, 8 November 2021 ahead of his Greater Accra regional Thank You tour on Tuesday, 9 November 2021, Mr Mahama said the government’s approach to corruption fight is wrong.

He said: “This government is just paying lip service to the fight against corruption. Look at the special prosecutor’s office, it had someone like Martin Amidu, a lawyer of a certain standing and former deputy Attorney General and if someone like Martin Amidu resigns and says the president is the ‘mother serpent of corruption’, it’s a very serious charge because he knows what he has seen”.

“Several attempts were made to obstruct him from investigating certain cases and that was why he said what he said”, Mr Mahama noted.

“So, your own appointed special prosecutor comes out to say you’re the ‘mother serpent of all corruption’; what else do you need anybody to say about your fight against corruption?” he wondered.

Mr Mahama bemoaned that when a case is presented to the special prosecutor, the same case is sent to the CID and “after investigation, the CID clears the suspect; meanwhile, the case is already before the special prosecutor...that’s why the president is referred to as the clearing agent...”

The 2020 flag bearer of the NDC explained that “the thing about corruption is that man is not perfect and everybody has his character based on where you were moulded in your home or where you grew up”.

“The president cannot work alone, the president needs people to help him, he doesn’t know the character of every single person he appoints.

“So, there will be cases of corruption. How you deal with it is what makes the difference. We are not saying you can clean the stables 100 per cent and there will be no corruption but when it occurs, how you deal with it to serve as a deterrent to other people is what is most important.”

Mr Mahama stressed that calling for evidence from whistleblowers before investigating corrupt allegations was wrong.

“[A] whistleblower cannot give you evidence; he is not an investigative agency; he doesn’t have the capacity. He only gives you the lead that ‘this is what I suspect has happened'. It is your duty, as government, to investigate the claim but if you say anyone who makes an allegation should bring evidence, am I the police? am I an investigative agency? So, the media can expose suspected acts of corruption and it is the duty of anti-corruption state institutions to pick those leads and investigate,” Mr Mahama stated.