Tony Aidoo Grabs Castle Car For ¢6,200

Published in Daily Guide on November 14, 2012

Sammy Awuku and Tony Aidoo

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The Head of the Monitoring and Policy Evaluation unit at the Presidency, Dr. Tony Aidoo, is said to be a major beneficiary of a government largesse, having grabbed a state-owned Ford Expedition vehicle for a paltry sum of GH¢6, 200.
The 4×4 vehicle, a 2005 model, was one of the several vehicles used by the previous Kufuor administration as part of the presidential fleet and estimated to cost not less than US$40,000 (GH¢80, 000).
Sammy Awuku described the transaction as ‘evil’ but did not trust that President Mahama would correct the ill.
“This is really evil, this is really criminal, this is very unethical, this is naked robbery and this is very Machiavellian,” Awuku parodied Pastor Mensa Otabil.
He insisted that this incident typified the corruption under the Mahama administration and urged all to be “vigilant across the borders, the DVLA and other agencies of state where these looting brigade and babies with sharp teeth will seek to transfer our stolen assets into their names”.
Tony Aidoo has however defended himself, claiming that he grabbed the car which did not have a gear box after it had been abandoned by the Kufuor government.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, Deputy Communications Director of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Sammy Awuku, who spoke on the ‘The People Must Know’ platform, provided evidence to support his claim.
These included an official receipt issued by a company (Shargraw Ventures) contracted by the state to auction the vehicle and a letter dated June 1, 2012 which was written and signed by Dr. Tony Aidoo to the Director of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) requesting a change of the vehicle’s registration number to a private one.
A similar acquisition of a state-of-the-art BMW in the year 1999/2000 by Dr. Aidoo triggered a debate over the paltry GH¢200 he paid for it.
Sammy Awuku and his colleagues found it intriguing that Dr. Tony Aidoo, who is often critical of his opponents, would purchase a state car at such a ridiculously low price.
He also cited how vociferous Dr Aidoo was in the year 2009 when appointees of the former NPP administration were said to have purchased their official saloon cars when they were leaving office.
Although the purchase was legitimate within the confines of age-old regulations, Sammy Awuku indicated that “Tony Aidoo was loudest in branding appointees of the NPP as nation wreckers.”
He also noted, “The age-old policy prohibits purchasing 4×4 vehicles.”
Surprised as he was, the NPP kingpin stated, “If a Ford Expedition vehicle with impeccable servicing history and part of President Kufour’s fleet of cars as a President could be sold for a paltry sum of GH¢ 6,200, then only God knows how much they have sold other state assets to themselves for.”
Sammy Awuku could not trust President Mahama’s ability to reprimand Dr Aidoo since “for a vice president whose boss (President Mills) constituted a committee to investigate his (President Mahama’s) involvement in inflating the prices of airplanes for the Ghana Armed Forces, we wonder if President Mahama has the moral high ground to do so.”
In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, Dr Aidoo said, “When you abandon a vehicle for about six years, standing at a private workshop and the vehicle is unserviceable and the vehicle is being sold to members of the public, a boarded vehicle, how many 4x4s do government departments auction?
“This is not a matter of my duty car being sold to me and then you will say it’s a 4×4 so you are not supposed to; people should get their facts right.”
On the issue about the cheap price at which he bought the vehicle, he said, “Well, if it’s peanut, you go and tell the auctioneer, when you have a car without a gear box”, insisting, “I didn’t do the valuation.”
He asked rhetorically, “When you have a car without a functional air condition unit, how much would you sell it, aside body works?
“It was even he (the auctioneer) who got me a mechanic; I had to import the gear box part from the United States of America for which there is also documentary evidence.”

NDC Dashes Cars, Cash To Imams, Chiefs, Students

Published in Daily Guide on November 14, 2012

One of the Landcruisers given to the Imams and NDC branded Hyundai i10, popularly called Atta Cambu, given to the students

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is determined to retain power in the next general elections as it splurges on a number of voters to influence the polls.
The party (and government) has allegedly resorted to various means of winning votes. It has started giving out money and cars to woo potential voters aside the massive outdoor and media advertisement.
Prior to yesterday’s presentation of 12 brand new Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles to the presidents of the National and Regional Houses of Chiefs by President John Mahama, tongues have been wagging about the several brand new cars including 4×4 cross country and pick-up vans being given to other chiefs.
Doling out of the freebies has caught the attention of influential members of the public including former president John Kufuor. “They are giving chiefs four-wheel drives and giving motorbikes to young men in return for their votes,” he told a gathering of Muslim chiefs last Friday in Kumasi.
Most of the beneficial chiefs are in the northern part of the country where the president has been campaigning for votes.
The vehicles for chiefs are estimated to cost not less than $80,000 (GH¢160, 000, the equivalent of ¢1.6 billion) each.
Leading members of the party and their agents, including some journalists, have been going round the country giving free cars and cash to opinion leaders to enable them to influence their followers to vote for the party.
Some top pastors of the Christian faith and Muslim clerics have also benefitted from the NDC vote-buying largesse.
Leading Imams were recently given brand new Toyota Land Cruisers to their amazement, with one of them refusing to use the car because he considered it as a form of bribery.
Pastors Fly To Jerusalem
Some high-profile pastors were sent on an all expenses-paid pilgrimage to Jerusalem, with as much as $10,000 paid to them as pocket money to pray for the NDC’s victory.
It started when some of these pastors, whose names are being withheld for now, were given brand new Toyota Land Cruisers as birthday gifts under the late President Atta Mills.
In the recent Muslim Hajj to Mecca, over half of the 6000 pilgrims were paid for by the state under the guise of ‘protocol’ allocation.
Not too long ago, the party rolled out a new vote-buying strategy with an invasion of the campuses of tertiary institutions, especially universities and polytechnics, baiting students with what is termed ‘Atta Camboo,’ brand new Hyundai i10 saloon cars. with some branded in NDC colours, with the University of Ghana, Legon becoming the school with the largest group of beneficiaries.
Adjoining hostels to the university are also donning the Atta Camboo cars from which some journalists have also benefitted.
A similar activity is going at the Dansoman campus of the Methodist University where executives of the students’ wing of the NDC, Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN), have allegedly received some of these brand new cars.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that all universities across the country have been invaded with the Atta Camboo cars.
Another intensive campaign has also started in various senior high schools with the sharing of GH¢50.00 concealed in neatly designed white envelopes, with a brochure of President John Mahama included.
The brochure, which bears the portrait of John in a red Lacoste shirt with the inscription ‘working for you’, is added to the GH¢50 and a message “dear student, compliments from President John Mahama. Thanks for making your parents and the nation proud. President Mahama asks for your vote. Vote Mahama 2012”, with a monogrammed pen included.
The party is also giving out vehicles and cash including 4×4 and Toyata Hilux pick-ups to a selected number of chiefs, mostly in the Northern regions.
This nearly resulted in confusion not too long ago when some of the chiefs protested against the kind of cars they were given in view of the fact that whilst some of the chiefs were seen driving brand new vehicles, others received used confiscated vehicles.
They therefore felt looked-down upon and raised issues with it.
Some have also been given houses at prime areas including East Legon and within other gated communities.
Opinion leaders therefore raised eyebrows about the source of funding for these profligate and opulent cars and money-sharing enterprise among potential voters, coupled with the mounting of gigantic billboards of President John Mahama across the length and breadth of the country, one of which is estimated to cost not less than GH¢10,000.
Members of the ruling party are said to be going to villages with brochures of President Mahama, with the claim that President Mahama was the one promising free education when voted for, despite the party’s open opposition to the free SHS policy.

Stop My Voice – Otabil

Published in Daily Guide on November 14, 2012

Pastor Mensa Otabil

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The head pastor of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Dr Mensa Otabil, who has become the centre of a raging controversy over audio recordings he claims to have been pieced together, has asked those behind it to cease playing it as an advert.
This was a day after the celebrated man of God held a press conference at which he made an appeal to President John Mahama to call his boys behind the tape to order.
A group within the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) that identifies itself as the  ‘Education Watch’ has used the said audio for an advert which is being aired on various radio stations in an attempt to ridicule the opposition New Patriotic Party’s ‘free SHS’ campaign promise.
But senior associate pastor at ICGC, Reverend Kofi Okyere, who spoke on Accra-based Citi FM, said, “He (referring to Dr Otabil) doesn’t want his voice being used like that so we are asking them to stop it.”
That, according to him, was in view of the fact that “they are using Doc’s voice without permission”.
“They are making it seem that he (Otabil) has no integrity and is a coward. That is not fair. Just stop using it.
“It’s not fair. The fact that he has produced an album and it is being sold on the market doesn’t mean anyone can use it anyhow. We think they are not using it well and should quit it,” he advised, warning that “If they don’t want to stop, it’s up to them. They can do whatever they want. We will not take it to court. We leave it to God.”
NDC’s No Holds Barred
But President Mahama and the NDC insist on using the tape because they believe the contents are relevant to issues of the day.
A statement issued by the president’s campaign team and signed by its communications director, Hannah Tetteh, sought to justify the use of the tape.
The likes of NDC propaganda secretary Richard Quashigah, deputy Finance Minister Fifi Kwetey, and an endless list of party spokespersons have sought to denigrate the revered man of God, with some using intemperate language to express their sentiments.
The Director of Monitoring and Policy Evaluation at the Presidency, Dr Tony Aidoo, believed Pastor Otabil did not have integrity. The former University of Cape Coast Economics lecturer described the preacher’s thoughts on theology as “metaphysics nonsense” which, he claimed, had lost contemporary relevance.
Dr Aidoo, a former deputy Defence minister, said, “The press conference today shows an extreme case of behavioural inconsistency to be exhibited by a man who presents himself or rather misrepresents himself as a man of God, as somebody who has the knowledge and the vision and has been preaching over the years and more or less become an opinion leader for a large section of the population.
“Nobody asked him to come and present himself and his image to Ghanaians as a man of wisdom. If you have done that, you will have no private ownership of the things you have said.”
He added, “I don’t think he has integrity.”
When he was asked whether or not the NDC would stop playing the tapes, Dr. Aidoo, who abandoned the academia for the world of politics, said, “I am not in charge of the NDC campaign, but if I was, I would play it day and night, 24 hours for Pastor Mensa Otabil to live with his conscience. He said we should have the courage to tell the truth. The test is on him. Let him tell the truth and stop running away.”
Copyright
Ace Anan Ankomah, a lawyer, however believed the decision of the NDC to use Dr Otabil’s voice was a breach of the nation’s copyright laws.
“Those who are using his voice in adverts are in breach of the law. Maybe, you didn’t know, but it has been pointed out to you now that the advert you are carrying with his (Otabil’s) voice is a breach of the law. Just stop it and let’s continue with the politics and leave this out,” he noted.
He quoted sections of the Copyright Act, Act 690, insisting, “In section 1, it mentions works eligible for copyright. It mentions literary works are eligible for copyright. If you go to section 76, it specifically mentions sermons” and that “section 76 under the definition of literary works, it lists lectures, addresses or sermons”.
“Everyone who gives a lecture, an address or sermon, is entitled to copyright protection and so, yes, Otabil has copyright protection.
“You can’t take anyone’s works and simply use it because you claim (he hasn’t] registered it,” he emphasised.
Mr Ankomah, a former lecturer in civil procedure at the Ghana School of Law, indicated, “…he has a right to be protected against distortions, mutilations and other modifications of his work if it is prejudicial to his reputation or the work is discredited by the act” and “has the right to protest against distortions and that is what he (Pastor Otabil) is talking about that various words and sentences have been put together for a certain purpose.”

NPP Blasts Mahama Over Tribal Comments

Published in Daily Guide on November 12, 2012

 

Samuel Abu Jinapor

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has condemned recent ethnocentric comments made by President John Dramani Mahama in a bid to get votes.
Mr Mahama was quoted to have told a rally at Zualerigu in the Upper East Region over the weekend that “our brother Aliu Mahama was vice president for eight years. I was vice president for three-and-a-half years. For almost 12 years, we have tasted vice presidency.
It’s no longer exciting. It’s no longer what we want. If NPP think they want vote from here, they should put my brother Bawumia in number one and let the two of us contest and then they will get something from here. The vice president we chop it aaaah, we are tired.”
These comments of the president has made him the hottest man in the country today, after his campaign coordinator and Deputy Minister of Local Government Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, recently threw caution to the wind and likened the NPP’s promise to provide ‘free SHS’ to the collapsed Melcom building virtually every Ghanaian was grieving over.
The NPP believed that “this is a very reckless statement, which may even be interpreted to mean that he spent his first three years or so at the Castle desperately looking for the opportunity to take President John Atta Mills’ seat”.
At a press conference in the Ashanti regional capital of Kumasi yesterday, a member of the party’s campaign, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor said, “This is a clear sign that the President has lost the battle on issues and is now resorting to fanning ethnocentrism in this country”, insisting that “this is a very dangerous and irresponsible way to rule a nation as rich and peaceful in its diversity as Ghana is.”
On November 1, 2012, the President made a similar comment whilst addressing the chiefs and people of Nankpanduri in the Northern Region, with a call on all ‘Northerners’ to give their backing to him so he could ascend the seat and make them ‘proud’.
According to Abu Jinapor, “That is the most insulting thing a leader can say to his people” in view of the fact that the President did not ask the people to because of what he could do to improve their lives but because of where he comes from.”
That, according to him, was because President Mahama and his ruling NDC had nothing to show for their four-year mandate given them by Ghanaians.
Treachery
He emphasised, “We cannot go down this dangerous path and wish to make it plain to President Mahama that if he has nothing better to offer to Ghanaians, at least, he shouldn’t destroy what he inherited, a nation with a long and proud history of multi-ethnic harmony.” He asked “…should other people also say that Southerners should also vote for Nana Akufo-Addo or any other candidate from the South?”
That, he said was because “Ghana has come a long way for her to be divided by myopic, visionless, petty-minded, and self-seeking politicians in the mould of President Mahama, who is desperate for power” and that “Ghana deserves better than the politics President Mahama is pursuing”.
Mr Jinapor believed that President Mahama and the ruling NDC had nothing to offer Ghanaians since “the President is recklessly driving Ghana back onto the road now abandoned by countries like Rwanda and Kenya, the dangerous road of tribal politics and we the young people of Ghana are cautioning him to stop this useless tribal politics” which he described as cheap, unhealthy and dangerous.
He noted, “No amount of useless emotional blackmailing would divert the attention of the people of this country from the failures of this NDC government.”
“With very little to show for the three-and-a-half years that he was in charge of the Economic Management Team as Vice President and subsequently as President, due to the unfortunate death of the elected President, the late JEA Mills, our caretaker President, John Dramani Mahama, has decided to put substance aside and concentrate on petty and divisive politics,” he said.
However, reacting to the anger that has greeted the president’s comments, Hannah Tetteh, Director of Communications for John Mahama Campaign, said the comments were directed at a particular group the president was interacting with.

Apply To Join NDC. Mosquito Tells JJ

Published in Daily Guide on November 9, 2012

Jerry John Rawlings

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, has demanded an official letter from the founder of the party, former President Jerry Rawlings before he allows him to join the 2012 campaign.
Mr Nketia appears to be waging a personal battle against the NDC founder as he sets a new rule for Mr Rawlings before the latter can be allowed to stand on the party’s platform.
“Time changes everything and in the past we never wrote a letter to invite him to attend NDC functions, but I can say that certain changes have popped up in this year’s election…henceforth, the relationship which would exist between us would be based on official letter writing,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Okay FM.
This was after the spokesman for Mr. Rawlings, Kofi Adams, made suggestions to the effect that the former President had changed his mind from his initial position of not campaigning and had now decided to join the NDCs campaign trail after meeting with some former executives of the party.
But a statement issued from the office of the former President, moments after Kofi Adams made the announcement, contradicted his claim, with Mr. Rawlings saying that “I am four years older than I was in 2008 and all the exertion plus my international roles mean I am a tired man.”
Mr Rawlings said he was hoping to retire after the last election but “unfortunately things did not fall into place the way they should have”.
Though he expressed the wish that President Mahama would win the upcoming elections, Mr. Rawlings stated, “As a party we have failed in several aspects of governance, particularly with respect to offering confidence to the people that they will receive justice at all times.”
However, the NDC General Secretary virtually said the founder had to indicate by writing before he could be allowed because of previous experiences where the former president had distanced himself from party programmes, warning them not to use his name to win support without getting clearance from his office.
“Whatever we do that we have not sent him an official invitation, you realise that those in his office would put it on the radio (news) as if it is a new thing but it wasn’t like that previously,” Mr Nketia said.
“So now that we have realised that we can only deal on official basis, then when everything is coming [from him], then we expect that they will also follow the rules that they have established for us to understand how they’ve made their minds.”
Though he admitted that he and his colleague members of the National Executive Committee of the party had not heard or received any such communication from Mr. Rawlings himself , he noted, “If we hear any such thing from him, whatever response we have; we will communicate it to him.”
Asked why the demand for Mr. Rawlings to submit an official letter or communication before being made to join the campaign, Mr Asiedu-Nketia said, “It has become important and I think that his office has come to realise that henceforth we will be dealing with them on documents.”
Mr Asiedu-Nketia, a former Seikwa-based banker, did not agree to suggestions by some members of the party to the effect that the election of US President Barack Obama automatically meant a win for their candidate, President John Mahama.
That, he said, was in view of the fact that Americans did not vote in Ghana.
That notwithstanding, the former Seikwa Presbyterian Middle school teacher indicated that some lessons could be drawn from the American elections, claiming that the Republicans destroyed the US economy whilst the Democrats came to fix it.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Mosquito Sacks NDC Rebels

Published in Daily Guide on November 8, 2012 

 

Johnson Asiedu Nketia

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The General Secretary of National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Asiedu-Nketia, has issued a seven-day ultimatum for party members who have filed to contest as independent candidates to rescind their decision or lose their membership.
It follows the decision by some members of the NDC including Dr Ato Quarshie, Michael Teye Nyaunu, Albert Zigah and Andrew Okaikoi to contest as independent candidates.
Dr. Ato Quarshie, who is a former Roads and Highways Minister, is contesting the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem constituency. Michael Teye Nyaunu, the incumbent NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower Manya, and Albert Zigah, NDC MP for Ketu South are contesting as independent candidates in their constituencies. Andrew Okaikoi, husband of former Information Minister Zita Okaikoi is contesting at Okaikoi North.
But at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Mr Asiedu-Nketia said, “The decision of the National Executive Committee with respect to these candidates is that we are giving them one week from today to decide whether they want to be part of the NDC in which case they will withdraw these nominations.”
H noted, “After one week from today (yesterday), they would have abdicated from the NDC.”
This, he said, was in view of the fact that the party intended to present a united front in the upcoming election which was barely a month away.
General Mosquito, as Asiedu Nketia is affectionately called, stressed the need for all card-bearing members of the NDC who had filed nominations to contest the 2012 parliamentary elections as independent candidates to withdraw their candidature.
He however fell short of saying whether or not the decision to go independent would affect the chances of the party in the upcoming election.
Attempts to speak with some of the independent candidates proved unsuccessful, with some declining to comment.
Political observers believed a member of the party contesting as an independent candidate, against one fielded by the party itself, could seriously affect the fortunes of the party since it would split most of its votes.
The NDC has fielded parliamentary candidates in all the 275 constituencies, unlike in the year 2008 when the party failed to present candidates in parts of the Ashanti Region, the stronghold of its main contender the New Patriotic Party (NPP).