Drama In Court Over Lawyers’ Licence

Posted: Daily Guide | Wednesday, 16 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
DRAMA UNFOLDED in court last Friday when the judge presiding over the case in which POS Foundation has sued Fan Milk Company for selling expired products to unsuspecting members of the public raised issues about the operational licence of solicitors of the ice-cream manufacturing company.

Fan Milk was seeking to set aside the writ of summons of POS Foundation and its Chief Executive, Jonathan Osei Owusu, on the grounds that the plaintiff, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), and its Chief Executive, a human rights activist, had failed to sign the statement of claim attached to the writ of summons.

This followed a suit filed by Mr. Owusu against the company and the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) after being hospitalized for consuming supposed expired yoghurt, one of the numerous products of the company.

Justice Utter Peter Dery of the Human Rights Court questioned the credibility of the licence of solicitors of Fan Milk, Messrs Quist, Brown, Wontumi and Associates, represented by Yaw Adjei Affram with registration number 03115, quoted on the statement of conditional appearance signed by S. K. Amoah.

This, according to the judge, was because the solicitors' licence expired on January 13 while the letter was written on January 20.

He therefore ordered the solicitors to immediately renew their licence to continue with the case.

Justice Dery therefore dismissed Fan Milk’s motion, saying “this application is thrown overboard since the first defendant, Fan Milk Limited, cannot stand on this minor error to seek the court to dismiss the case."

Mr. Affram said the failure to sign the statement of claim rendered the summons void since every writ of summons should be accompanied by a statement of claim duly signed.

Mr. Affram said "In the absence of a signed statement of claim, the writ of summons cannot stand."

But counsel for Pos Foundation and Jonathan Osei Owusu, Denis Ofosuappeah and Isaac Aidoo of Ahmed and Co., contended that the statement of claim which was not signed could be corrected within a matter of seconds so that the case could be speedily heard and disposed of instead of dragging it to waste the court's time.

POS Foundation and Jonathan Osei Owusu are seeking the court’s order to get Fan Milk Company to put an expiry date on Fanyogo, one of its products, and make it legible while stopping the sale of its products carried by vendors in the hot sun.

The plaintiff is also asking the court to order the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) which is the second defendant to ensure that Fan Milk fixes legible expiry dates on the products and institutes an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure public interest and safety.

It wants the court to order Fan Milk to immediately recall all Fanyogo products on the market until the expiry dates are fixed on the products and an injunction on the production of Fanyogo until they have met all the conditions of legible expiry date and recall of the products on the market.

Furthermore, Pos Foundation is seeking an extensive health care in favour of Mr. Osei Owusu as well as general damages and cost.

Clash Over ‘All Die Be Die’

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 15 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The famous ‘all die be die’ comment by the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) refuses to die a natural death, as it continues to generate heat in political circles.

The latest of these is the clash between a leading member of the NPP, who is aspiring to become the party’s parliamentary candidate in the Ablekuma South constituency, Ursula Owusu, and Presidential Aide, Stanislav Xoese Dogbe.

Ursula appeared on Metro TV’s ‘Good Morning Ghana’ show wearing a branded T-shirt with the bold inscription ‘ALL DIE BE DIE,’ incurring the anger of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

This follows calls by NDC for the NPP presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to apologise for comments he made at a meeting with party faithful at Koforidua in the Eastern region, urging them to be bold--a comment which he repeated in several other meetings in the Greater Accra. Nana Addo is now in the Upper East region, and he is expected to repeat the same message.

The wearing of the T-shirt by Ursula seemed to have provoked Stan Dogbe, a man who until recently did not have his name in the official list of presidential appointees sent to Parliament. According to him, Ursula who happens to be the vice president of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), was only trying to court what he described as cheap popularity for herself to lobby for a ministerial appointment should Nana Addo become President after the 2012 elections.

Stan Dogbe of the infamous ‘Dogbegate’ scandal told Accra-based Citi FM why Ursula Owusu should be wearing a T’ Shirt with that inscription.

“As for Ursula, she thinks that being boisterous and overly supportive of whatever Nana Addo says whether good or bad is what would give her the popularity that she requires to win her parliamentary seat or get her a ministerial appointment in Nana Addo’s government. I am sorry Nana is nowhere near the Presidency in 2012 or 2016 and she ought to realize that this country would have to remain stable before they come back to power,” he charged.

But Ursula dismissed Stan’s criticisms insisting that there was nothing wrong with the T-shirt she displayed on the programme, indicating that she wore the dress in response to the NPP presidential candidate’s call for party members to be bold and defend their right in the 2012 elections, since the NPP would not succumb to the intimidations of the NDC government.

She therefore accused Stan of rather being the person who was scheming to win cheap popularity and recognition in the Mills administration.

The NPP stalwart thus urged Stan to show some element of respect to Nana Addo who fought against the brute dictatorship of the AFRC and PNDC of former President Rawlings.

We’re ready for NDC

Adding his voice, Boakye Agyarko, Campaign Manager for Nana Akufo-Addo said the NPP was more than ready to meet the NDC boot-for-boot in 2012, adding they would no longer sit in laxity for their members to be beaten by NDC goons as happened in Chereponi, Atiwa, Akwatia and Agbogbloshie.

Mr. Agyarko told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that “we should stop this hypocrisy. NDC has visited violence upon this nation many a time. We refuse to be intimidated this time round. We are going to stand our grounds. Let the NDC, given their character, do their worst, we will be ready for them but we will not run.”

He therefore turned down a request by the NDC for Nana Addo to apologise for the “all die be die” comment.

“You apologise for a wrong. The NDC has to convince us what the wrong is ethnocentrism. That is a figment of their imagination. If you listen to what Nana Addo said, he said ‘ye se yen Akan fuo.’ Do you understand that, it means somebody told Nana Addo or they say? It is not Nana Addo saying ‘Akan fuo.”

Until then, Mr. Agyarko noted, “you don’t render an apology because someone insists you render an apology. “Nana Addo is not inciting anybody. He is not asking people to jump onto the streets with cudgels and cutlasses to attack the NDC.”

Instead, he said, all the NPP leader did was to send a message to the NDC that “if they continue in the fashion they have always done in Chereponi, Atiwa and all of those areas and if they believe that we are cowards and each time they will attack us we will run away, no. They will be wrong; this time round we will not run away”.

For him, his colleagues in the NDC are upset because “now their usual victim is ready to face them, the school-yard bully, that’s all it is.”

Mr. Agyarko recalled how his younger brother and former Chief Executive of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), Emmanuel Agayrko, was nearly lynched by members of the NDC in the year 2008 when he stood as NPP parliamentary candidate for Lower Manya constituency in the Eastern Region.

A night before the 2008 general elections, Mr. Agyarko narrated that “seven armed men, armed with pump action guns driving the vehicle of the NDC MP, drove into his house (and) started firing.

“Luckily, my brother was not there but my sisters and other relatives who were in that house were recklessly beaten and most of them injured” he said, noting that “the attack is imminent again. They have threatened to attack him again.”

In that regard, the NPP Campaign Manager could not but say “the question I want to ask the NDC and all those who are saying that Nana Addo shouldn’t have said what he said is ‘what is the advice they should give my brother when the attack comes. What advice do they want to give my brother; that he should run away, is that what they are going to ask him to do when the next attack comes?”

He said that it would be important for those calling for the NPP presidential candidate to apologise to understand the context in which Nana Addo was speaking, stressing, “If the NDC insists on lying by taking part of the sentence away in its attempt to incriminate Nana Addo, shame on them.”

Back Off Nana

Posted: Daily Guide | Friday, 11 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Kobina Ivor Greenstreet, has asked the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) to stop its hypocrisy; spare the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, their tantrums over his ‘all die be die’ comments; and concentrate on the affairs of state.

Mr. Greenstreet believed the NDC was making a case out of nothing because Nana Addo’s comments were in no way an inference to violence come 2012, stressing that what the ruling party was doing was just “an orchestration to make him appear unelectable”.

This, he said, was because the NPP presidential candidate’s comment was one directed at internal party members to prepare them for what he called ‘the metaphorical political battle’.

The CPP General Secretary was speaking on X.FM’s ‘Big Bite’ programme yesterday, touting Nana Addo as a man who hates violence and has been fighting for the rights of the individual, emphasizing that what the NDC was doing was their own way of denigrating their opponents.

Nana Addo had asked his party supporters at a forum in Koforidua on Tuesday to stand firm and not to allow themselves to be intimidated. He said they should get ready to meet the NDC boot-for-boot in the 2012 elections.

He was quoted to have said, "We need to be bold and courageous for 2012 because Ghanaians need us to come to power", stressing, “They (NDC) have intentions to intimidate us in 2012 because they believe that we are soft and cowards.

If that is the thinking, then we shall see. At least, during the Atiwa by-election, we showed a little of our colours there.”

He added, "You must understand that this party was formed by courageous people. Our leaders who formed this party that has now become the biggest political movement in Ghana were not cowards. So in 2012, we need to be courageous because all 'die be die'. All die be die," he said.

This is what has triggered leading members of the NDC including the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah to launch a series of blistering attacks on Nana Addo.

“Nana Addo’s personal political history should be able to tell Ghanaians that he does not believe in violence; he does not believe in subverting the rule of law and the constitutional provision which protects all Ghanaians.

Rather on the contrary, he has been an individual who over many years has fought for the right of Ghanaians, has fought for the opening up of the political space, for freedom of association and for freedom of speech”, noted the CPP General Secretary.

For this reason, Mr Greenstreet said, “I think that it was more of an internal matter that he was speaking to his own rank and file, trying to get them prepared and ready for the struggle ahead.”

Instead of punching holes and finding faults in Nana Addo’s comments, the CPP General Secretary asked the NDC to focus on delivering the so-called ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ they promised Ghanaians and stop building mountains out of molehills, saying, “It is clear that the incumbent NDC government has a definite strategy to try and create the impression that Nana Addo is some kind of cocaine smuggler, violent and some kind of ‘gidigidi’ human being; but I think what they need to concentrate on doing is to show Ghanaians what their strategies are and what they are working on and stop spending time trying to pick on every word Nana Addo has to say and paint it in a certain light to the public.”

NDC On Nana

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah asked the NPP to take steps to remove Nana Addo as its presidential candidate since, in his opinion, the actions and words of the opposition leader were inimical to Ghana's democracy.

He took issue with Nana Addo’s comments, describing him as a war monger who must be sacked by the NPP.

This, according to him, was because “the violence that characterized the Atiwa by-election was part of an orchestrated and a well rehearsed grand design to plunge this nation into chaos during the 2012 elections”, emphasizing that “Nana Akufo-Addo has reconfirmed his credentials as a war monger who will stop at nothing in his bid to pursue his selfish political ambition of becoming President at all cost even if it means plunging this nation into civil and tribal war.”

The NDC called on the NPP presidential candidate to withdraw what they described as “these unfortunate statements and apologise unconditionally to all Ghanaians, particularly his own party for putting them into such an awkward and embarrassing situation by these utterances.”

NPP Hits Back

In a sharp and swift rebuttal to the NDC’s press conference, NPP General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie said Nana Akufo-Addo had nothing to apologise for.

He sent a clear message to the ruling party that the NPP would not allow the democratic will of the majority of Ghanaians to be abused by intimidation, violence or electoral fraud in 2012.

Instead, he said, “Our flagbearer’s firm and uncompromising position on ensuring a clean contest in 2012 is based on the extra-electoral tactics employed by the NDC in Akwatia, Chereponi and Atiwa and the shocking inaction of the security personnel in the face of such blatant acts of intimidation, violence and electoral malpractices.”

In a statement, the NPP warned: “Let them not think that we would give them a free hand at repeating these unhealthy practices in 2012. NPP will be no rollover in 2012”, calling on its activists and supporters to stand firm and defend their democratic rights.

In that regard, the NPP has turned down the suggestion by the NDC for its presidential candidate to apologise for those comments since “the NPP is proud to be led by a man who would not stand by and allow Ghanaians to be cheated” and that “the NPP will continue to express, through both our words and deeds, that we are deeply committed to the democratic process.”

The NPP has consequently asked the ruling NDC to stop the diversionary tactics and focus on doing what is important, asking them to fix the economy and deliver on their promise of a ‘Better Ghana’ since “propaganda will not pay school fees; it will not reduce the cost of living or create jobs.”

The statement said: “It is not for the NDC to define to Ghanaians who Nana Akufo-Addo is. For over 35 years that Nana Akufo-Addo has been at the forefront of fighting the Ghanaian cause - for political freedom, human rights, democracy, opportunities and prosperity - Nana Akufo-Addo never once used any instrument of violence as his weapon.

“True to the character of the founders of our political tradition, Nana Akufo-Addo has used his courage, wisdom, words and legitimate persuasion to help bring about the kind of democratic environment that we are all enjoying today, which the NPP is committed to protecting and enhancing,” the statement said noting, “Nana Akufo-Addo's record speaks for itself.

“His contribution to both national and international peace and freedom can never be wished away by the programmed amplifiers of false propaganda. It is a hopeless endeavour destined to fail.”

The UK and Ireland branch of the NPP has also declared an unflinching support for Nana Addo’s comments.

A statement issued and signed by its Communications Officer, Nana Yaw Sarpong said Nana Akufo-Addo is also right to ask party members to remain steadfast, disciplined and focused, as well as prepare to sacrifice, and work hard for the party to come to power in 2012.

Nana Akufo-Addo’s comments raised serious concerns about the attitude and machinations of the National Democratic Congress and its leadership under President John Evans Atta Mills and the current attempts to undermine the peace and security of Ghana without honoring its numerous promises to the Ghanaian people, as well as the seeming lack of political will from civil society to address this menace, citing several instances in which members of the ruling party visited brutality on members of the NPP including those at the Kokomba market in Accra, Chereponi and Atiwa be-elections to back their claims.

Four people mainly NPP supporters were butchered by NDC goons with impunity in broad-day light in front of a Police Station at Agbogbloshie in 2009, a few weeks after NDC had assumed power, with no arrest made since then.