Television presenter and host of Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom-Otchere has unprovoked chastised the Deputy Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr Justice Srem-Sai, for images of him he posted online, roping in President John Dramani Mahama.
According to the broadcaster, the Deputy Minister acted childish when he took photograph of himself at the office and posted it online.
“Let me let the cat out of the bag. Look at this photograph, posted by the Deputy Attorney General. No viewers look at it. What is this?” he said zooming it.
Making the issue a whole topic on Metro TV, during his show on Thursday, 23, Adom-Otchere expressed total shock at the lack of decorum and presence of mind saying the photographs looked like he was attaching it to a music he was about to promote.
He said when the photo was initially sent to him, he imagined it was EL, a Ghanaian rapper. He at a point had to comically play song from the artiste to buttress his point.
“Deputy Attorney General stands in a lift in office and he is posting a picture to promote his new single. Look at it, deputy attorney general. Overnment lawyer he is posting this picture on social media for his new single. So when I saw it the reason I said it was for his single was it last Friday people were sending me see your man, see your man when I saw the photograph I thought it was EL. Do you remember that guy”, he said.
He went further inderscored the importance of his office indicating that two articles appointed him to his current position/ “Do you remember EL? You know what I mean? Koko of EL. EL, EL was doing that song. Attorney General, government lawyer? Look at this. Who is he competing with on social media? Do Attorney General… Do Attorney Generals compete… .compete on social media? The guy appointed under Article 88 and Article 79.
Two articles are pointing you to the position. 88 and 79.
Most ministers are appointed under Article 78 only.
The Attorney General is appointed under Article 78 and Article 88. The Deputy Attorney General is appointed under Article 79 and Article 88. Look at what he’s posted. He’s the government lawyer. He’s the minister for justice. And he posts this single music that he’s releasing. This is a beautiful photograph to release a single.
As deputy AG, Adom-Otchere said Dr Srem-Sai should be preoccupied with enormous work than engaging in photoshoots in lifts and splashing them online.
Rhetorically, he asked President John Mahama if he was proud to see his appointee who holds a very important posit engage in such pettiness when there is work to be done.
“Is President Mahama happy with this? That his young appointees are doing that?” he asked.
Striking a sharp difference between the Deputy AG and the former AG, Godfred Yeboah Dame, he said the two are completely far apart.
Making analysis of the two, he said comparably the latter was not a social media freak. He said Dame was so engross in his responsibilities that even registering to have an account on Facebook, became a daunting task as at some point they had to practically force him.
Finally, he said this even happened in 2024, in the last year of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
“They criticize Godfrey Dame, don’t they? When Godfrey Dame was Attorney General, we had to whip him to get a Facebook page. If you like, viewers, this technology makes our work very easy and it can find anyone out.
So transparency is key. If you like, they will know. Go on your social media, viewers. Go to Godfrey Dami’s Facebook page. Check when the Facebook page…
You will see it’s 2024. He was [Deputy] Attorney General in 2020.
His Facebook page started from 2024. We had to cane him. What happens is you send him something from the general public that he has to see. You call him. AG, have you seen the thing? He said, oh, I don’t get Facebook. I can’t open it.
I said, ah, you do this. You don’t have Facebook? He said, yeah. Everybody was complaining.
Then finally he succumbed to Facebook in 2024. And his point was always that, chalie, I have so much work to do. Come and look at my desk. I have plenty of things to do. I should be doing Facebook.
He asked the deputy minister to attach some seriousness to his work by resisting the temptation of jumping on the bandwagon and displaying himself on social media.
But the video of his outburst have attracted conversations on the internet with many condemning his unwarranted attack. They said what the broadcaster is engaged in is sheer envy and jealousy.
He further picked on the young appointees of the President mentioning particular the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Frank Amoakohene, who months ago had a banter with.
“You see, some of these young NDC appointees, I think they did… Somebody said that he’s 35 years old. He has been appointed as minister. And he sends his wife to go and have the child for $60,000 of taxpayers’ money. He said that he’s more important than everybody else because he is a minister.”
He questioned if the appointees were not taken through orientation after their appointment.
By Gifty Boateng