Betty Mould Is Hot

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 19 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister of Justice, Betty Mould Iddrisu has been compelled by prevailing circumstances and pressures from within her own party to explain why she has been unable to prosecute members of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

In a statement issued in Accra yesterday, she reaffirmed her commitment to President Mills’ principle of justice within the confines of the law.

Despite unnecessary calls from members of her own party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), including a former Supreme Court judge, Justice Kpegah, for her to quickly take cases involving members of the NPP administration to court, Betty the ‘sweet-talker’ said she is following the principles of thoroughly investigating cases rather than pushing them to court only for them to fail the litmus test.

Mrs. Mould Iddrisu said President Mills has clearly spelt out her duties, and believes she is acting in the best interest of the state and all the people involved.

She noted with emphasis that “even the NPP who made much noise about jailing NDC ministers when they came to power were unable to do so with ease despite the rhetoric”, stressing the cases involving Tsatsu Tsikata and Mrs. Rawlings needed to be both thorough and fair rather than to make mistakes with haste.

Despite talk about several allegations of wrong-doing established by the transitional team against former government officials in the NPP administration, the embattled Attorney-General noted that the investigators have not yet been able to furnish her office with findings for prosecution.

This, she said, was due to the fact that “most of the ministries and agencies that were due to provide information and evidence for prosecution are still investigating these matters to ensure that prosecutions did not encounter any hitches”.

Mrs. Mould Iddrisu also indicated that despite a memo from the Chief of Staff to the various ministries to provide necessary evidence to investigate 49 corruption cases arising out of the transitional team’s report, only the Transport Ministry has responded.

She however noted that state investigations departments such as the CID, the BNI and the SFO which are expected to feed her office with facts have so many challenges hampering their work.

The Attorney-General has thus described as unfortunate some of the criticism about her competency.
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Betty Mould Iddrisu has recently come under a barrage of criticism from within her own party about her inability to prosecute former ministers of state alleged to have mismanaged or misappropriated public funds.

Some of her critics have attributed her inaction to her close relation with some of them - a suggestion she has denied.
She has however indicated that her office is working together with other state institutions on a government White Paper to commence prosecution on the recommendations of the Ghana @ 50 Commission against Dr. Charles Wereko Brobby and Former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani.

Ex Security Operatives Storm CHRAJ

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 19 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Some agents of the National Security who were dismissed by the Mills administration without any tangible reason have threatened to take the law into their hands to fight for their rights.

This was when they stormed the offices of the Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to follow up on a petition they had earlier sent to the commission for wrongful dismissal and non-payment of their gratuity.

They have therefore asked government to expedite action on the payment of their gratuity before matters get worse.

The affected staff were mostly made up of officials who were employed between 2001 and 2008.

Their dismissal is therefore seen as political victimization since they were appointed during the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

Their gratuity have not been paid since August 2009 when they were dismissed in a letter signed by the Acting Deputy Security Co-ordinator, K.D Dankwa.

What seemed to have provoked the anger of the ex-agents was a comment made by an official of CHRAJ, one Bede Tukuu who is handling the case.

When Mr Tukuu came out to of his office to meet the group, one of the members said, “We are suffering so you people should do something about our case.”

But this comment by the ex-security agent angered Mr. Tukuu who asked rhetorically, “You are suffering so what?”

Though some members of the group became charged, their colleagues managed to calm them down until he finally met two of the ex-security agents in his office.

Minutes after the two leaders including one Sammy, Spokesman for the group came out of the office, the rest became fired up and threatened to march straight to the National Security Secretariat, the famous ‘Blue Gate’ to meet Lt Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey over their concerns since there seemed not be any hope.

This was because Mr Tukuu told them that though he and for that matter, the Commission had written an official letter to the National Security, it had not been responded by National Security Secretariat.

They therefore noted that they were prepared to go and demonstrate at the offices of the National Security for the incumbent government to realise their plight.

Some of them, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, revealed that under the current circumstance, they had no option but to take the law into their hands since “government has turned a deaf ear on their concerns.”

With most of them being former military personnel, they wondered how the government expected them to survive after receiving training in arms and ammunitions.

“After committing our entire lives to serve this nation, if this is the reward we will get; then we will use what we have to get what we want,” an aggrieved ex-security agent noted.

Some of the aggrieved workers claimed they still had their weapons and identity cards with them and could use to at any point in time when the need arise.

“The incumbent government must pay us our gratuity if they don’t want trouble,” they stated.

One could not but asked rhetorically “is this what President Mills promised to be the father of the nation and father for all or is this is the meaning of the ‘I care for you?”

He drives a lot of inspiration from a statement by former President Rawlings when he staged the coup in which he said, “I am prepared to die than to be a slave in my own country. I don’t know much about the law but am prepared to go to the extreme and face the bullet than to be a slave in my own country here.”
The group has therefore served notice that if the government does not addressed their concerns in the next couple of days; they would be compelled to stage a massive demonstration to demand the payment of their gratuity.