NDC Blows $1m On Enemies

Published in Daily Guide on September 24, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

 

President John Mahama

The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to have spent over $1million of the taxpayers’ money on hounding political opponents.
The money included an amount of $686,000 given to a supposed ‘Professional Group’ aligned to the NDC, contracted by the Mills/Mahama administration, to hound perceived ‘enemies’ of the government for their roles in the Ghana@50 celebrations.
This was after a High Court discharged the two members of the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani and Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, on charges of willfully causing financial loss to the state, an action brought against them by the state.
A letter from the desk of deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice Ebo Barton-Odro to the Finance Ministry, is calling for the payment of the money to the shadowy NDC group.
Apart from the actual contract sum which was $70,000, the group was also paid a daily allowance of $2,000, bringing payment to $686,000.
The group’s membership is not known but it is believed to be made up of NDC members of which one was recently elected to stand as a parliamentary candidate for the ruling party in the Volta Region, after defeating a minister of state and incumbent MP.
Comprising NDC lawyers assembled by the Attorney General, they were paid the sum to enable them to look for enough grounds to specifically prosecute former Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani who was Chairman of the Ghana@50 celebrations and Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
A letter dated April 26, 2012 and authored by a Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ebo Barton-Odro, who has been at the center of payments of a number of controversial judgment debts, is authorizing payment from the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. The letter stated that the payment was in “respect to services rendered in the provision and procurement of Jubilee toilets and sampled souvenirs for the Ghana@50 celebrations.”
It is this same ‘Professional Group’ whose dealings with the state are shrouded in secrecy that was paid a whopping $300,000 for a similar investigation into the infamous Isofoton case which also ended up in a mirage. Its advice to the state on the matter was ignored and payments effected courtesy of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a deputy Minister of Information, who lobbied for the Spanish company to get payments for alleged wrong abrogation of contracts.
Before they could even submit their final report on the Isofoton case, the office of the Attorney General had issued instructions for payments to be made to the company as judgment debt.
The contract agreement dated October 7, 2010 and entered between the state, represented by Barton-Odro, and one E. D. Manful, described as Managing Consultant, and witnessed by one Elikplim Agbemava, a lawyer at the Ministry of Justice and Mercy Akyeampon, a Secretary to the ‘Professional Group’, stated among others, things that  “the client (state) shall provide to the consultant (Profession Group) such as a list of cases to be periodically investigated by the consultant, with timelines for completion as agreed between both parties.”
Apart from that, the Professional Group was also required to provide the state all “reasonable support as may be deemed necessary for reasons of confidentiality, security, expeditious dispatch of assignments, legal requirement, and propriety.”
For the sake of secrecy, it was also required to, as it were, “handover to the client (state) all reports prepared in the course of each assignment and shall not keep any working papers and reports relating to the assignments on account of confidentiality and sensitivity but shall turn such materials over to the client.”

Come Out!

– NDC Dares Nana Konadu

Published in Daily Guide on September 19, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

 

Angry party members are spoiling for a fight with Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings

“We dare you!” The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to be telling former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings to declare her presidential ambition for the December 7 polls or hold her peace.
The NDC is asking Mrs Rawlings to come out and declare her stance boldly instead of hiding behind a group.
Speculations are rife that the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, is running for the flagbearership position of the newly formed National Democratic Party (NDP).
The former First Family has not been able to talk to the issue apart from comments linking them to the new party by NDP leaders.
The former NDC vice chairperson was in the Ashanti Region over the weekend meeting NDP officials ahead of the formal launch of the new party by the close of the month.
The NDP has opened nominations for its presidential candidate position and Nana Konadu is expected to contest.
Mrs. Rawlings has been linked to the NDP and the party has flaunted her as likely to lead it to the upcoming elections slated for December 7.
She is said to be the main sponsor of the NDC breakaway party.
The closest Nana Konadu has come to be linked with the new party was her response to a question as to whether or not she would run for the position when she said it would happen.
This appears to have stirred up a hornet’s nest, with some leading members of the NDC daring her to brave the odds and declare her stance.
The Ashanti regional secretary of the ruling party, who has fallen out with the Rawlingses, Joseph Yammin, has been compelled to come out of his shell, insisting that “if Mrs. Rawlings is really as bold as we are made to believe, then I think that Mrs. Rawlings should own up and tell everybody that she is the founder of NDP rather than pretending certain people are pleading with her to lead that party.”
Though the national organiser of the NDC, Yaw Boateng Gyan, has personally expressed concern that leading members of the party have left to form the NDP, Yammin, who spoke on Accra-based Radio XYZ, said, “We are least bothered about the development, especially when we don’t know who Mrs. Rawlings and the executives are deceiving.”
At Saturday’s Legend and Legacy Ball that honoured highlife king Abrantie Amakye Dede, host of Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’ morning show, Kwami Sefa  Kayi, who emceed the event, asked Mrs. Rawlings in Twi before a packed crowd “Ebeba so?” (whether she was prepared to accept the call from the NDP to become its flagbearer).
The former First Lady and president of the 31^st December Women’s Movement (DWM) responded in the affirmative that “Ebeba  so”, meaning “It will happen!”
There and then, the crowd went ecstatic with shouts of “yeah yeah”.
The entry of the NDP into the political fray has sent shivers down the spine of the leadership of the NDC as confirmed by Yaw Boateng Gyan, since it would scuttle the votes of the ruling party in the upcoming elections, especially at the grassroots where the Rawlingses enjoy a considerable support base.
The party received its final certificate from the Electoral Commission last Friday, enabling it to operate as a political party.
Former President Jerry John Rawlings and founder of the NDC and his wife are believed to be behind the formation of the NDP.

Gbevlo Exposed

Published in Daily Guide on September 19, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

 

Stephen Amoah (middle) flanked by Francis Assenso-Boakye (right) and Charles Owusu

A group of young Ghanaians who identify themselves as Concerned Citizens has called for the head of National Security Coordinator Lt Col. Larry Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd) for his complicity in the infamous ‘Yaw Boateng Gyan’ tape.
In the said conversation which is captured on tape, Yaw Boateng Gyan, national organiser of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), was heard hatching a dangerous plot for the impending elections with a group of party goons.
The plan included the issuance of National Security identification cards to a group of NDC youth to run riot on election day.
Leadership of the group had already lodged a formal complaint with the police, asking them to investigate the content of the tape which it believed was a recipe for disaster.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, spokesman for the Concerned Citizens and leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Amoah said he was not surprised about the outcome of the supposed investigations conducted into the saga by the National Security.
This, he said, was because the security outfit itself was neck-deep into the affair, hence could not have conducted any credible investigations into the affair, thereby citing the institution and its head for conflict of interest.
“We believe that the National Security and its Coordinator has no credibility because his outfit was cited in the tape,” he told DAILY GUIDE.
In the light of this, Amoah said, “I am of the view that even Gbevlo Lartey himself has to be invited to help the CID to investigate the case further; so how can he come out and say that the man is exonerated… there is nothing that borders on bla bla bla.”

Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-­Lartey

“I’m even shocked because he wants to tell me that the statement that Finance Minister, the Finance Director were all involved…giving monies all the time to other people by his request and not he requesting some for himself; all these issues according to the National Security Coordinator are not issues of concern or of importance to our socio-economic development,” he noted.
An obviously bemused Sticker, as Amoah is affectionately called, stated, “It is very serious”, insisting that “we need as a people to understand that the National Security Coordinator has to stay out of it”.
Leadership of the Concerned Citizens thus asked incumbent President John Dramani Mahama to walk the talk and use his authority to order “a proper and professional” investigation into the matter.
This, according to Mr. Amoah, was necessary “to calm nerves and ease tensions that have risen up in the country as a result of the shockingly dangerous revelations on the tape which threaten the peace and stability of this nation”, insisting that it was an affront to the country’s democracy.
“The President should not underestimate the grievousness of the decision by the National Security Coordinator that there is nothing to investigate from the tape despite the glaring evidence of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of the ruling party to steal money from state coffers, disrupt election, cause violence and threaten our peace stability,” he emphasized.
This, he said, was because the issue undermined the public confidence in the National Security Services.