?Government of the people by the people for the people?, a phrase captured in Abraham Lincoln?s Gettysburg Address in 1863, November 19 has over the years become the modern definition of democracy.
Inside Ghana, a religious believer in the above statement and for that matter the rule of law and constitutionalism deem it imperative to interrogate those who seek political mandate to meet the above definition criteria and bring those findings to the fore to help make informed decisions and choices.
One cannot stop admiring Ghana?s democratic credentials especially as we approach the December 7th general elections with issues on education, health and corruptions taking centre stage of our political discourse. We take this opportunity to thank all Ghanaians for the way and manner they have comported themselves by tolerating the views of others no matter how offensive they sometimes may seem or sound.
Ladies and gentlemen, it will be recalled how on several platforms Akufo-Addo has proclaimed to be incorruptible and his determination to fight corruption but can Ghanaians believe and trust the running of the country into Akufo-Addo?s hands, a firm believer of property owning democracy and the politics of self aggrandizement thereof? It is more so frightening when he has been cited as a beneficiary of a number of kickbacks during his short but abysmal reign as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
As a political pressure group, Inside Ghana is today going to share with Ghanaians, the true Nana Addo who for the sake of Political expediency and capital gain has been placed in an ice boxand hidden from the lenses of Ghanaians by the New Patriotic Party.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press,the following are recorded facts about Nana Akufo-Addo which we must critically interrogate to help us make informed decisions.
? NANA ADDO AND CORRUPTION?
Nana Addo is alleged to have benefited US$ 5,000 from the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone UK as an NPP Member of Parliament.
Nana Addo again is cited in judgement by an Accra High Court to have demanded 50% kickback in the Rockshell International judgement debt case before authorizing payment.
Nana Addo is also reported to have written a letter of recommendation from his Law chambers in order for the Great Cape Company limited to be paid million of Ghana Cedis as judgement debt.
Nana Addo as Attorney General and Minister for Justice milked the State coffers by committing what the then CID boss DCOP Timbillah refers to as ?double jeopardy? in his report, ?Kolon UK vrs Ministry of Works and Housing and Ministry of Roads and Transport/Feeder Roads Department?.
The CID boss established in the said report dated, 25th September, 2002 that Kolon UK had no contract with the government. [Page 13, (35) (a)], As the recommendation by the Arbitration Committee for the Government of Ghana to constitute US$ 1,431,726.68 to Kolon UK appears inappropriate.
The Ministry of Works and Housing and Ministry of Roads and Transport/Department of Feeder Road have records proving the payment of the spare parts to Gbewah Civil Engineers Ltd. Ghewah Civil Engineers Ltd admitted receipt of the part payment of the same spare parts supplied to the Ministries. It is therefore appropriate for Kolon UK to recover its money from Gbewah Civil Engineers Ltd.
To compel Government of Ghana to repay the amount already committed for the same purpose amounts to double jeopardy. This is to commit Government to pay twice for the same activity.
(b) Gbewah Civil Engineers has been a business associate of Kolon UK Ltd. Kolon UK should therefore compel Gbewah Civil Engineers Ltd to refund the amount collected on its behalf and possibly invite the ministries as a witness in their endeavour, please.
Akufo-Addo as Attorney General did not just dump this report into the bin, but instructed payment is made to Kolon UK.
Equally devastating, is Akufo-Addo?s involvement with issuance of diplomatic passports to drug barons. Indeed Ghanaians will painstakingly recall the shame Ghana had to bear when Nana Addo?s relative; Raymond Amankwah with a Ghanaian diplomatic passport was arrested in Brazil with narcotics drugs. We are not surprised as more than 500 diplomatic passports got missing in his office when he was a Foreign Minister.
Under Nana Addo?s watch as Attorney General, the docket to prosecute the 3 women arrested at Kotoka International Airport with banned narcotics miraculously transmogrified into thin air.
Nana Addo does not find it necessary to condemn John Kuma, an alleged fraudster who continues to be a key member of his campaign team but is quick to chide others. A case of double standards and hypocrisy demonstrating Nana Akufo-Addo?s political rhetoric
Silence is not just golden but concern and Nana Akufo-Addo?s continued silence suggests his political gimmicks of taking Ghanaians for a jolly-ride. These worrying trends are destructive to national development as monies that could have been used for schools, roads, hospitals, etc found their way into Nana Akufo-Addo?s pocket. The trauma of corruption under Nana Addo as Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has left an indelible impression that underlies a certain mistrust of his incorruptible posture.
Indeed it is very disconcerting and worrisome to say the least that Nana Addo will have any moral grounds to talk of corruption.? His expostulation to corruption we believe is a well calculated attempt aimed at deceiving Ghanaians just as his freebies policies.
? NANA ADDO; A THREAT TO NATIONAL PEACE AND STABILITY?
As the judgement debt conundrum hits us in the face due mainly to the way the NPP abrogated contracts, the standard bearer and the self imposed crusader of anti-corruption, Nana Addo, seems to hide behind a blockade of deceit and lies in his desperation to win the December 7th Presidential elections ?at all cost? by insinuating unwarranted, reckless and unsubstantiated attacks on State institutions.
Under the circumstances, Inside Ghana is under no illusion that Nana Addo and his NPP intend to strangulate the electoral process and throw the country into a state of anarchy should the NPP lose the upcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections as evidenced in their utterances and actions.
The following are serious inflammatory statements from the bed room of Nana Akuffo Addo which should be interrogated and investigated for the safety of this country?
It is unpardonable to have heard Nana Akufo-Addo making undiplomatic, ethnocentric genocidal chant of ??yen akanfo?? and ??all die be die?? which was condemned by good thinking Ghanaians. Akufo-Addo and his team till date defend this gerrymandering statement.
Taking a cue from what the flagbearer of the NPP said Samuel Awuku tasked supporters of the NPP? to be more vigilant and armed themselves with pestles (womafunu)
Ladies and Gentlemen, is there no option other than Dr. Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe to say that the 2012 election will not be a conventional war but a guerilla war
The NPP?s former Chairman, Peter Mac Manu was caught on tape advancing importation of arms into the country. What for?
Ladies and gentlemen, Nana Addo failed to condemn embattled rabble-rouser Kennedy Agyapong for declaring war and calling for the annihilation of Gas and Ewes by the Akans
Nana Addo in 2008 deployed Maxwell Kofi Jumah with 30,000 thumb printed ballot papers and guns and other ammunitions to Tain in his failed bid to rig the election in 2008 election and will do it again this period.
Can Nana Addo explain to Ghanaians what Anthony Karbo, the then National Youth Organizer of the NPP meant by, ?if NPP is not declared winners of election 2012 then there will be Afghanistan??
Nana Akuffo Addo again also said that the NPP must win the election ?at all cost?. This demonstrates his arrogance and lack of respect for the decisions of Ghanaians. An insult we will no longer take.
Kennedy Agyapong inspired the party supporters at Mantse Agboena to lynch the police personnel in an attempt to ensure peace during the elections.
Anthony Abeyifa Karbo was recently captured on tape streamlining operations of the NPP on how they would instigate fighting by bringing in mercenaries from Libya, Togo, Benin, Liberia, Nigeria, etc. He also categorically said on the tape that they will attack the CID?s, the police,the electoral commission, BNI, etc and calls some military officers as ?Ayigbe Brigadiers?.
In a report compiled in June 2011, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the authoritative US think tank singled out Nana Akufo-Addo as the one Ghanaian politician whose conduct poses the biggest threat to the nation?s stability. Titled ?Ghana: Assessing Risks to Stability? the report notes on page 16 that ?The role of the NPP leader and expected Presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, will be crucial, and early signals suggest reason for worry. Akufo-Addo is desperate to mobilize support, and he has played the ethnic card, referring to the NPP as ?We the Akans,? urging his supporters to ?all die be die??that is, they should be willing to die to ensure the NPP‘s victory??
Ladies and gentlemen, is there any shred of doubt that indeed the standard bearer, Nana Addo and NPP are planning to visit on Ghanaians an unimaginable violence and untold mayhem in the upcoming general elections as they see defeat to be eminent? These incendiary comments which stir up factionalism, in Anthony Karbo?s own words, are meant ?to win a psychological warfare?. Is it not insulting for Nana Addo to talk of rule of law when the NPP has three unconstitutional members of Parliament whose continued presence amounts to illegality?
? CONCLUSION?
Inside Ghana invites Nana Addo to speak to the above issues of his involvement in siphoning state money through dubious judgement debt payment to the good people of Ghana.
We also demand an unqualified apology from him for his ?all die be die? agenda which seems to inspire war mongers such as Kennedy Agyapong, Kofi Juma, Sammy Awuku, Anthony Karbo and other leading NPP functionaries.
We also call on him to halt this ?all die be die? machinations which now seems to be operational in the aftermath of recent revelations and to assure Ghanaians that he is indeed committed to the nations democratic dispensation by announcing to the State that he will accept the results of the elections just as HE President John Mahama has said on numerous platforms
We also call on the security agencies of the State to investigate the various call for violence and bring those who fall foul to the law to book. And we also challenge them to be resolute in their duty to ensure peace before, during and after the December 7th Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are convinced beyond any doubt that Nana Addo?s alleged corrupt practices and war mongering posture has become the foundational blocks to which the likes of John Kuma and Anthony Karbo, Kennedy Agyapong and Maxwell Kofi Jumah have perpetuated their seditious criminal acts.
We will at this juncture call on the media, Civil Society Groups, members of the Moral Society and all Ghanaians to support our call for Nana Addo to apologise to the nation or step down. Attitudes inform choices and decisions which would have a long term effect on us.
We thank you all for coming
George Spencer Quaye
(Convener)
