NPP can’t escape retribution

NDC Chairman warns
Posted: The Chronicle Tuesay, May 26, 2009.


By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The ruling National Democratic Congress has hinted that it would not hesitate to hunt down the so-called ‘witches’ of the opposition New Patriotic Party, if they indeed exist.
The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the party, Daniel Anang who dropped the hint, said the previous government officials should be prepared to face the con­sequences of their actions and inactions which may have caused the nation to suffer loses in one way or the other.
According to him, there was no way that such persons in the former government would be allowed to go unpunished.
Mr. Anang, according to The Chronicle, was reacting to claims by the claims by members of the erstwhile NPP administration that they were being witch-hunted.
He said “we are only asking them to account for their stewardship and nothing more”. He noted that the NPP is only trying to court pub­lic sympathy, in order to prevent the NDC government from prose­cuting them.
He wondered why members of the NPP should be afraid of accounting for their stewardship to the good people of Ghana if they know that they have done nothing wrong against the state. He con­demned the attempts being made by the NPP to create a false impression on the minds of Ghanaians that they were being politically persecuted or witch-hunted.
Borrowing copiously from the Managing Editor of ‘The Insight’ newspaper, Mr. Kwesi Pratt, Mr. Anang said “if there are witch­es in the system, we will bunt them down. They did worse things. they should not talk about witch-hunting at all. you and I were in this coun­try in 2001 when they chased peo­ple out of even church rooms, they were ready to arrest Tsaasu Tsikata in a church”, he said.
He recalled how public servants were asked to ‘proceed on leave’ without due recourse to the law, citing the cases of Kofi Portuphy and Hodari Obi, who suffered similar fates.
“Are they (NPP) now afraid of their own shadows?”, he asked.
According to him, the NPP should rather count themselves blessed that Ghana has a leader like President John Evans Atta Mills, who is always preaching peace and discouraging political vendetta.But for the President, he noted that the NDC could have also done worse things like the NPP did to their political opponents during their 8-years stay in power.
He however cautioned against taking the President’s generosity to be a weakness since according to him no matter what happens, those who dipped their bands into state coffers for their personal benefit will be made to account for their deeds.
“From the handing over notes, areas where we think somebody must answer a question, of course we will make them answer, as sim­ple as that. I don’t want anybody to read any other meaning into that” he said, asking rhetorically “is that witch-hunting”?
He said the former Chief of Staff is making noise all around on the air waves and print media just to court public sympathy. But he issued a stern warning that “the NDC will ensure that the law takes its course, without fear or favour”.