Tsatsu released from incarceration

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Posted: The Chronicle Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Tsatsu TsikataHours to the end of his term of office, President J. A. Kufuor has extended warm courtesies to certain individuals, who through their own actions or inactions found themselves in the grips of the law, during his tenure of office.
He has thus granted free, absolute and unconditional pardon to former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Authority (GNPC), Tsatsu Tsikata, former Finance Minister, Kwame Peprah, former Youth and Sports Minister, Mallam Yusif Issah, former Agric. Minister, Ibrahim Adams.
The rest include former Chief Director of the Finance Ministry, George Sepah-Yankey and Akenteng Appiah- Menkah and former Trade Minister, Dan Abodakpi.
A statement signed by Deputy Information and National Orientation Minister, Frank Agyekum said the individuals were part of some 500 people pardoned “under his prerogative of mercy as enshrined in article 72 of the constitution.
In his wisdom, the President also granted amnesty to all first-time offenders who have served more than half of their term and nursing mothers found guilty of non-bailable offences. The sentences on all death row have been committed to life imprisonment whilst those on death row who have served more than 10years have had their sentences reduced to 20years.
Though counsel for Tsatsu, Tony Lithur confirmed having received information of his client’s release, he was not sure on what grounds his client was granted the pardon.
Whilst admitting that very credible sources told him that his client had been granted unconditional pardon, he wondered what might have motivated the release, asking rhetorically -“why at this time.”
Knowing Tsatsu and what he stands for, Mr. Lithur stressed that his client would be upset about what has happened, considering the fact that he remains innocent of the charges leveled against him.
Meanwhile, Tsatus’s brother, Fui Tsikata has told Joy news that he preferred to treat the news of his brother’s release as a rumour, until he hears an official pronouncement confirming the story, adding that it is only President Kufuor who could offer a better explanation for the release.
For him, Tsatsu was never guilty of the offence he was tried for, and stressed that the granting of the pardon imposes certain disabilities on him, which cannot be cured.
Left to him alone, he would have preferred that Tsatsu was acquitted through the same court process which incarcerated him.
Under the current circumstance, Fui noted that his brother may never be able to stand for certain public offices in the country, such as President or vice President.
He however, noted that his brother could not be discharged from the Cardiothoracic Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, where he was treated for acute asthma last November, and that they are only waiting for directives from the doctors in that regard.
Sources close to the Korle-Bu Hospital, where Tsatsu has been hospitalized for the past two or so months, told The Chronicle that prison guards assigned to him had been withdrawn.
Tsatsu was handed a 5year jail sentence on June 18, 2008, by a Fast Track High court, presided over by Justice Henrietta Abban for causing financial loss to the state.
The court handed down the sentence on the former GNPC boss after the trial judge found Tsikata guilty on all four counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state, and intentionally misapplying public property on a limited liability company.
Tsikata, a legal luminary, who dribbled the legal system for almost six years, was sentenced for five years imprisonment on each of the four counts to run concurrently.