Police chase Sammi Awuku, 4 others

Published in Daily Guide on January 31, 2013

Sammy Awuku

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

The police at Madina have invited Deputy Communications Director of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammi Awuku and others including the National Youth Organiser of the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan, for questioning.
The rest include the parliamentary candidate for the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) in the Kintampo North constituency in the 2012 elections, James Kwabena Bomfeh, aka Kabila, with their colleagues Ernest Owusu Bempah and Charles Owusu of the National Democratic Party (NDP) and Progressive People’s Party (PPP) respectively.
Mr Awuku confirmed the invitation to DAILY GUIDE: “I received a call from the Madina Police division; the district police commander who said he was calling to invite me for an interaction and questioning concerning the ‘Let My Vote Count Alliance’ that was launched over the weekend at Dome-Kwabenya, Taifa-Norway park. ”
“He said he wants to know what it’s all about, he also wants to know our intentions, he also wants to know why we had the rally,” he noted.
Originally, they were supposed to have reported yesterday morning but Mr Awuku indicated to the Madina district commander it was not possible for him to make it to the station since he had other engagements for which reason the meeting was rescheduled for 10:00 a.m. this morning. But at press time DAILY GUIDE learnt that Monday has been fixed for the meeting.
The NPP man narrated “he also enquired about the organizers and the conveners” but said “I told him I was a speaker at the event. Nonetheless, I know that the ‘Let My Vote Count Alliance’ was not a secret cult so I will also reach out to the organizers and we will have a date with him tomorrow” (being today).
Mr. Awuku said he has since informed the aforementioned individuals who are equally wanted by the police for questioning.
The group, according to Mr. Awuku, has since informed their lawyers and would meet the police on Monday.
However, an obviously bemused Sammi Awuku told DAILY GUIDE “I think that there is so much tension in the system; any attempt by the security agencies and the government of the day to cow people into submission, to victimize people going about their legitimate duties and so on will also serve as a trigger to  the tension in the system.”
In view of this, he said “I’m only cautioning the government and also the security agencies to be very level-headed in these matters.”
Sabotage
A statement issued by the ‘Let My Vote Count Alliance’ (LMVCA) yesterday asked the police and government to stay off their backs.
The statement which was signed by leading members of the group including David Asante, James Kwabena Bomfeh, Charles Owusu, Abu Ramadan, Charles Nii Teiko Tagoe and Maame Afua Akoto said they were aware of a deliberate plan by the National Security and the National Communications Authority (NCA) to sabotage one of their major partners and one of the most popular radio stations in the country, Oman FM.
This, they said, was in view of the fact that the frequency of Oman FM has been interrupted since the launch of the Alliance last Sunday.
Government Antics
“Information that we have picked up from sources close to the system suggests that the National Security and National Communications Authority are behind this apparent, deliberate act of sabotage,” the group alleged.
They claimed to have picked up signals that suggested the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the National Security apparatus were uncomfortable with their activities and operations and were therefore determined to use any means necessary to destroy it.
Leadership of the LMVCA however reminded the two government institutions that “Ghana is not a police state and that the right to assemble, the right to free speech are entrenched provisions in Ghana’s Constitution and we would not allow any person or organisation to take this right away,” whilst indicating their commitment to a peaceful, non-violent expression of concerns.
That notwithstanding, they noted “no amount of state-sponsored intimidation and harassment can stop us” and consequently reminded President John Dramani Mahama, whom they referred to as ‘disputed President’ that “he would not succeed in bullying his way to hold on to power” insisting “not even the KGB tactics and police brutalities of the Ukrainian authorities could stop the masses from protesting and the Supreme Court from ruling that their presidential election was rigged.”
This, the statement said, was because “if such state-sponsored act of terrorism could work against the tide of democracy in former communist state, Ukraine, then it certainly wouldn’t work in Ghana here.”
The group has since asked President Mahama to, as it were, “pull back from turning Ghana into a police state in this period before the Supreme Court ruling” and urged him to bring a stop to these deliberate acts of interference with the operations of Oman FM.

Martin Amidu arrested?

Published in Daily Guide on January 31, 2013

Martin A.B.K Amidu

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE suggests former Attorney General and Minister of Justice in the Mills regime, Martin Alamisi Benz Kaiser Amidu, was picked up by security agents before the 2012 general elections.
A source at the National Security said he was picked up from his home by agents of the National Security a week or so before the election to an unknown destination to prevent him from dropping bombshells.
He was subsequently alleged to have been kept incommunicado for a couple of days until after the elections.
Martin Amidu himself was tight-lipped on the issue when DAILY GUIDE reached him on phone on Tuesday to verify the story, but he declined to make any comment.
“I don’t want to make any comment about that,” he said.
Indications were that no charges were brought against him.
Mr Amidu had been leading a crusade to stamp out corruption in the current NDC administration, especially payments of questionable judgment debts to people close to the government including Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who walked away with GHC51.2million without any contract.
He was determined to retrieve the Woyome payout before he was sacked from government.
It would be recalled that Mr. Amidu made allegations to the effect that the late President John Evans Atta Mills had set up a Committee of Enquiry to investigate the acquisition of aircraft for the Armed Forces negotiated by the then Vice President and now President John Dramani Mahama.
Members of the supposed committee were said to include Interior Minister William Aboah, George Amoah and Brig. Gen. Allotey (Rtd), and they were to investigate the processes of the acquisition of the five aircraft, including the infamous Embraer 190 aircraft and hangar for the Ghana Armed Forces from Brazil.
Although President Mahama never responded to the allegation, it was believed that was one of the reasons Mr Amidu was detained.
Apart from that, the source told DAILY GUIDE the no-nonsense former Attorney-General, who was relieved of his post for obviously opening his mouth too-wide in an attempt to expose corruption in the Mills/Mahama administration, was thought to be having some delicate information which if released, would affect the chances of Mahama, who was the Presidential candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the party in that election.
The government, as it were, thought it wise to put the man who prides himself as ‘citizen vigilante’ into the cooler to prevent him from making explosive statements about the party before the elections.
Interestingly, the supposed committee tasked to investigate the acquisition of aircraft for the Armed Forces was said to have neither sat nor written a report before the demise of the late president.
In one of his several epistles, Mr. Amidu stated that “pressure groups never allowed the Committee to take off.
But the very fact that the late President Mills contemplated this Committee meant that he was uncomfortable with and suspicious of the alleged inflated prices of the aircraft.”