The
rescue operation was contained in a statement issued under his signature at the
party headquarters to challenge the insinuations cast by Justice Kwame Afreh during the reading of
judgement last Monday in the Quality Grain case.
It
could be recalled that five former top officials were standing trial in the
Fast Track High Court over $20m Quality Grain case in which Mrs Juliet Cotton
has raped the nation.
The
five accused persons were being tried for wilfully causing financial loss to
the state under section 179(3) (a) of the criminal lode, 1960 (Act 29).
Amendment Act, 1993 (Act 458). The presiding judge at the end of the trial, sentenced three of the accused persons to various
terms of imprisonment: Abrahim Adam, Kwame Peprah-4years and Dr Sefa-Yankey-16months on charges
of conspiracy to causing financial loss and wilfully causing financial loss to
the state. The jail terms run concurrently.
However,
two of the accused persons Atto Dadzie
and Dr Dapaah were acquainted and discharged.
Reacting to the sentence, Prof Atta-Mills told Joy FM
that the two years old case presided over by Justice Afreh
had vindicated his party position that it was politically motivated.
Prof
Mills could not understand why Justice Afreh took a
swipe at him during the ruling just because as a Vice President in the former
government, he took interest in the project to ensure its success. Prof Mills
was unhappy that Justice Afreh referred to him as a
“shadow director” of the Aveyime Rice Project.
He
said after listening to all these, I ask myself, are we listening to a
political statement or are we in a law court? Prof Mills said he was particularly concerned
that Justice Afreh’s assertion that he would have
been lenient of the officials had pleaded on the grounds that they were acting
on superior orders, and that makes the conviction baseless.
In
an interview with the President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Paul Adu-Gyamfi cannot understand the assertion of the NDC that
the decision of the High Court had political undertones. Adu-Gyamfi
said the loss in the case was to the state and that the law must take its cause
to discipline offenders.
Yonni Kulendi, an Accra Legal Practitioner and
Social Commentator said he was unable to comment until he reads the full
judgement but was quick to add that it was not political. He said the charges
against the officers were contained in the criminal code and would affect all
politicians and public office holders.
In
the press release, Dr Asamoah finds Justice Afreh’s judgement as “being unreasonable if the basis for
it is that the state had suffered a loss, as indeed the Ghana Government is to
enjoy restitution” as ruled in a US court. Dr Asamoah
was equally “surprised at the political turn that the judge took as though the
NDC was put on trial”.
The
statement said “The Rawlings and Prof Mills were virtually indicted by Justice Afreh in a case in which they were not standing trial.
“They were subjected to attacks, and vilification by Justice Afreh in his judgement, and this, the NDC considers to be most unfortunate and indeed uncalled for.”
Dr Asamoah said what he has gathered from the judgement is
that ‘the ruling NPP Government is bent on pursuing its diabolic agenda to annihiltate the NDC as the biggest opposition party, using
the judiciary as its instrument. Dr Asamoah concluded
“the judgement itself has set a very dangerous precedent for both current and
future political office holders.” – Ghanaian Voice
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Nana
Kofi Coomson, who is
currently engaged in private “enterprise” in Europe, sent his message through
the Chronicle newspaper, and noted that “it is heart warming that there is
someone with the mind and spirit of “my friend’ who is prepared to put his neck
on the line in pursuit of what he believes in.”
He
said he was very impressed that Tarzan suggested that he believes that the
action of the a “defining moment” for journalism,
because he is right and the Chronicle newspaper and every other media, must be
guided by the principles espoused by Tarzan in his pronouncement and treatise.
Coomson said the man credited with pioneering investigative journalism on the
Ghanaian media scene said he is has to agree with Dr Wereko-Brobby
on this principled and professionally sound comments, even though it goes to
deepened the irrelevance of the GJA ethics committee, which he had slammed from
the word go because it appears to show some teeth.
He
noted that the National Media Commission appears to be getting it acts together
with its recent decision to go to act to enforce a directive. He said that the
VRA boss’ action, he believes, will force journalists to be more responsible in
the long term interest of the profession, and will hasten the demise of
‘fifth-columnists.”
“It
will also make rumour-mongering and cheap malicious reporting unattractive and
unrewarding for those seeking to increase sales by making cheap, unfounded
shots at public officials,” he added. Kofi Coomson, however, challenged aspects of Tarzan’s remarks,
saying that after reading Tarzan’s widely disseminated statement on the
internet, he was worried that he would be drawing VRA into the line because he
personally knows that Chronicle has no problem with the VRA as a corporate
body.
He
said Tarzan should face the Chronicle newspaper on his own steam and from his
own personal resources, because Chronicle is the “umkhonto
we sizwe”, (A South African Zulu slogan meaning Spear
of the Nation).
The
cries of the VRA workers have reached out to us in the firmaments, and we are
doing what we have bee doing in last eleven years-resisting dictators, bullies,
political demagogues and pretenders at great personal costs. Continuing, Coomson observed, “Wereko-Brobby
should not be exploiting VRA staff and resources, and that of the tax payer to
prosecute his personal agenda.”
He
complained that distinguish personalities, like VRA company solicitor, Mrs
Angelina M. Domakyaareh, a distinguished lawyer of
such stature, could be pushed around to run such “personal errands.” “It would
be interesting to se how the VRA boss would establish that every action he
takes and took would stand up to scrutiny and that they were taken in the best
interest of Ghana.”
Coomson indicated that he would be helping in the defense
of the paper, which Wereko-Brobby is a staffer on
sabbatical. “There is no malice, just business as usual, in line with the
tradition that I have established and which I demand from my reporters and
editors…bold, investigative…no he said, she said,” type of new, Coomson added. – Ghanaian Chronicle
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Nyaho-Tamakloe was speaking to the Chronicle newspaper in a telephone chat on May
Day. He also described the intended demonstration by top gurus and cadres in
the NDC in protest against the rulings as “bizarre and a strange political act
likely to make a boomerang effect on a party already in the throes of death.”
He
observed that one good thing the Parliament of 1993 did for this country, for
all its faults, was to pass that law against “causing financial loss to the
state” for the simple reason that it is in line with the principles of probity
and accountability. “I definitely would like the law to stay as it is.
People
who offer themselves for public service must be diligent in taking good care of
public money, property and interests. Misuse of public property is a serious
offence” waxing philosophical, he opined. “There is something in law called
“vicarious liability” which directly or indirectly means public office holders
responsible for any losses incurred negligently or otherwise.
What
the NDC must come to terms with, and get clear about, is that it is the courts
that interpret the law and not the politicians. Politicians make the law, but
it is the courts, which interpret them,” he stressed. – Ghanaian Chronicle
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