Politics
- Super User
- Category: Politics
- Monday, 05 December 2016 17:24
Show us just one conviction resulting from this incumbent President’s so called anti-corruption campaign. This President pretends to prosecute only those he dislikes like Abuga Pele, the MP for Paga, and a few others. But he only uses the pretended prosecutions to whip his wayward Party members into line. Heed well, they say past behavior is a predictor of future behavior. John Mahama is not a newcomer to the corrupt practice of aiding the looting of the public purse. As a condition for President Mills signing the controversial executive consent to permit the E.O. Group to assign its $300million shares to Tullow, the E.O. Group agreed to pay $13million to the Government for the development of the Western Region, and they called it corporate social responsibility.
It was John Mahama (as the Vice President) who orchestrated the unlawful deal which I refused to endorse as the Attorney General at the time. It was Mahama who ensured that the $13million was paid not to the Government of Ghana for the benefit of the people, but into private pockets – which the late President Mills was shocked to hear shortly before his death. So what is the talk of anti-corruption by this incumbent President Mahama? During his tenure, Ben Kumbour who succeeded me as Attorney General refused to give the indemnity that was demanded from me by this President (then as Vice President).
The indemnity was given in December 2014 when the late Miss Aikins (who was DPP when I was Attorney General) was ordered to produce that criminal case docket I had left in her custody to an officer of the Attorney General’s office upon the instructions of this President. We are told this President is incorruptible? Tell it to the marines.
Let me remind the public that the late Prof. Mills became convinced of the necessity to set up a committee to investigate the hue and cry about the prices for the acquisition of five (5) aircraft for the Ghana Armed Forces in July 2011. A Committee to Investigate the Processes of the Acquisition of Five Aircrafts (5) including Embraer 190 Aircraft and hanger for the Ghana Armed Forces consisting of Mr. William Aboah, Mr. George Amoah, and Brig. Gen. Allotey (Rtd) and former Judge Advocate-General, was put together.
President Mills asked me to instruct and draft the terms of reference for the Committee as follows: “(i) to investigate the processes adopted in selecting, negotiating, and agreeing on the acquisition of the aircrafts; (ii) to investigate the competitive advantage, prices of the aircrafts and the level of economic and financial due diligence conducted by relevant agencies in the process of acquisition of the aircrafts; and (iii) to investigate any other matter that in the opinion of the Committee is reasonably related to the foregoing terms of reference.”
The suspected corruption involving President Mahama, then the Vice President, was covered up because pressure groups never allowed the Committee to take off. The future of the Committee was compromised for good when upon becoming President, this President appointed the Chairman of the Committee as his National Security Adviser, whom he dispensed with not long after to shut him up. The revelations of endemic corruption in Brazil over the past few years should alert everyone as to what happened during the aircraft purchases from Brazil. It is not too late. A new Government can look into it again.
The National Anti-Corruption Action Plan? See my website for comments. Nothing concrete has happened except white washing Government corruption. The Code of Conduct for Public Officers was work in progress under Mills and has never been enacted. In spite of it, Ministers who are accused of corruption in the award of contracts for bus rebranding are simply asked to resign. Is that the famous fight this President conducts against corruption which strips Ghana’s public coffers bare? What of the Ford Expedition saga? As he himself has said, John Mahama truly did not need a Ford Expedition. Why then was the Ford Expedition sent to the President through the Ghana Ambassador to Burkina Faso?
One just has to read the letter from the Ghana Embassy to Burkina Faso to the border authorities at Paga which was dated 29th October 2012 and use common sense and the answer is obvious. Mahama had just assumed office after Mills’ death and he was going into elections unprepared financially. However, the President’s friend and beneficiary of contracts when the President had just assumed office was ready to provide financial support.
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