Kufuor Minister’s For Woyome Trail

Published in Daily Guide on July 12, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

After subjecting them to all sorts of harassment and portraying them as common criminals, the Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is making frantic efforts to get some officials of the erstwhile Kufuor administration to testify as witnesses in the ongoing Woyome trial.
This was after several attempts by the State to get prosecution witnesses to testify in the case failed, a source at the High Court told DAILY GUIDE.
The former government officials being pursued by government to help prosecute the case against the NDC financier who has been accused of fraudulently pocketing GH¢51.2million, are former Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, Osei Bonsu Amoah, his colleague at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu and former Finance and later Education and Sports Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that Mr Amoah would appear today at the Fast Track High Court trying the case.
The trial court issued a subpoena for the aforementioned individuals to appear before the court today, Thursday, July 12, 2012 at exactly 9:00am and serve as prosecution witnesses.
A copy of the subpoena seen by DAILY GUIDE, dated Tuesday, July 9, 2012 and signed by Chief State Attorney Cynthia Lamptey, for Attorney-General Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, was given to the witnesses.
According to the source, the Attorney-General was compelled to resort to the issuance of a court order after initial attempts to get the former government officials to testify on behalf of the State failed due to the manner in which some of them were treated.
Mr. Amoah, for instance, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aburi-Nsawam, was arrested and detained.
The last time the case went to court, the presiding judge, Justice John Ajet-Nasam, had cause to express worry and disappointment about the manner in which State prosecutors were handling the case.
“Is the State serious in prosecuting the matter?” the judge asked after Mathew Amponsah, a Chief State Attorney, prayed for an adjournment because the State had not been able to fully confer with the witnesses who were also to tender relevant documents on the case.
The trial judge wondered why the State, which at the last hearing claimed it had witnesses to testify in the case, made a sudden u-turn with the excuse that the witnesses it wanted to use were out of the jurisdiction and therefore needed time.
However, Justice Ajet-Nasam said, “I am not doing your case for you anyway but I believe we can do this quickly and finish this case in the interest of Mother Ghana.”
It is not clear if the officials of the former administration will be forthcoming with information or act as hostile witnesses.
Woyome claimed that he had no contract with the state but succeeded in walking away with GH¢51.2million.
The money was said to have been fraudulently paid to him.

JJ Meets NDP Chiefs

Published in Daily Guide on July 9, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Credible information picked up by DAILY GUIDE indicates that former President Jerry Rawlings has been holding a series of meetings with interim executive officers of the newly-formed National Democratic Party (NDP), which broke away from the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Sources said he first met them in his office on Thursday, on arrival into the country from his trip abroad; and subsequently met other interim officers from selected regions including Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Central, Upper West and Northern regions on Friday together with his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, at the North Ridge office of the 31^st December Women’s Movement (DWM).
Further meetings were held on Saturday to conclude the party’s registration process.
At the time DAILY GUIDE got to the office of the 31^st December Women’s Movement on Friday, they were said to be locked-up in a marathon meeting.
This was followed by another meeting on Saturday with another set of NDP officials.
Spokesman for the Rawlingses, Kofi Adams and other influential members of the group who had either resigned or left the NDC, were said to be present at various times, with the meeting lasting several hours.
The meeting, according to a source, was to among other things strategise on how to roll out a comprehensive and vigorous campaign across the length and breadth of the country ahead of the 2012 elections, and embark on an intensive membership drive to strengthen their support base.
Joseph Bediako, a member of Friends of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (FONKAR), told Rok FM in Takoradi that the former first family was part of the new party.
This ran counter to the position of the NDC that the association of Mr Rawlings, who is the NDC founder, to the NDP, was mere speculation.
“Over the past few days, the Secretariat of the NDC Headquarters has been approached by numerous media houses to comment on the reported formation of a new political party which is being associated with former President JJ Rawlings who is the Founder of the NDC.
“The NDC regards the reported association of our former President to the new party as mere speculation and will not make any statement on the matter until the former President himself comes out. All who speak in the name of the NDC in this matter must therefore do so with circumspection and to remain focused on what the Mills Administration has achieved in the face of daunting challenges,” a statement signed by Richard Quashigah, Propaganda Secretary said.
The continuous silence of the Rawlingses on speculations that they were behind the formation of the NDP had given many reason to believe they were indeed the brains behind the party.
Though no physical structure (in terms of building) had yet been sighted of the NDP, indications were that the party had interim officers in all 10 regions of the country and were seriously working to win more souls, especially disgruntled members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) into their fold.
This was in view of the fact that most or virtually all the founding members of the NDP were former members of the ruling NDC who were either on suspension for one reason or the other, or had left the ruling party out of frustration.
Former General Secretary of the NDC and now interim Chairman of the NDP, Dr Nii Armah Josiah Aryeh, had indicated that the ideology of the newly formed party was to protect Ghanaians with emphasis on the under-privileged in society.
Contrary to suggestions that the NDP was formed to scuttle the front of the ruling party, Josiah Aryeh maintained that the primary objective of the party was to become the people’s choice of a governing party.
The NDP has a logo that depicts a white rising dove with the famous ‘Gye Nyame’ symbol in its beak and colours similar to that of the NDC; red, green, white and black.

NDP Is Light Weight
Though the Electoral Commission is yet to issue the NDP with a certificate to operate as a full-fledged political party, some members of the Mills-led NDC administration including Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa have sought to ridicule the formation of the party.
“I do not think the NDP has the capacity to organize and win elections in 2012 – it is still-born really,” he said on Joy FM/MultiTV current affairs programme, Newsfile on Saturday.
He said the NDC was still not sure whether the Rawlingses were indeed behind the party, adding that the NDC had issued a statement to say the founder, Mr. Jerry John Rawlings, had not indicated to the party he was leaving.
Okudzeto Ablakwa noted that even if the Rawlingses did not campaign for the NDC this year, that was not a guarantee the NDC would lose, saying that in 2000 and year 2004, the Rawlingses were on the NDC campaign trail and yet the party lost on both occasions, suggesting the former first family had little impact on the NDC’s fortunes.
The deputy minister said the National Reform party (NRP) dealt a serious blow to the NDC in 2000 because its members then were cadres who could organize at the grassroots level, but the people linked to the NDP so far were top brass NDC members who did not have the capacity and personnel to organize.
“So far we have not been able to count even five disgruntled leading members of the NDC linked to the NDP and there is nobody that can convince me that they can organize and make any impact.”

Panic Over Konadu Party

Published in Daily Guide on July 6, 2012

By Charles Takyi-Boadu 

The seat of government, the Osu Castle, was said to have been thrown into a state of shock yesterday when news of the formation of a new political party, the National Democratic Party (NDP), by some of its disgruntled members was made public.
Sources at the Castle said influential members of government made several calls to Dr Nii Armah Josiah-Aryeh who has been named Interim Chairman of the NDP (shares name with Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak’s party) yesterday in a bid to get him and his colleague founding members to rescind their decision.
Dr Josiah-Aryeh is said to have described the NDC as a cancerous disease. “They say they intend to find cure for the disease, but they don’t know they are the disease themselves,” he was reported to have said.
A meeting was said to have been hurriedly organized at the plush presidential resort, the Peduase Lodge at Kitase near Aburi in the Eastern Region for NDC strategists to fashion out ways to neutralize the effect of the new party.

Dr Nii Armah Josiah-Aryeh

But Dr Josiah-Aryeh was said to have turned down the invitations and propositions from the Presidency.
The yet-to-be launched NDP, linked to the Rawlingses, is gradually taking shape with the emergence of the names of some interim officers to steer its affairs.
Dr Josiah-Aryeh and Dr Rockson Mamboa have been named its interim Chairman and General Secretary respectively.
Member of Parliament for Lower Manya, on the ticket of the NDC, Micheal Teye Nyaunu, who spoke on Citi FM, said, “I’m in the tracks, running fast towards that place” in response to the question of whether he intended to join the breakaway party.
He would resign from the ruling party when he finally takes a decision to join the NDP after consultation with his constituents.
The Electoral Commission has confirmed receiving the application from the promoters of the NDP.

Jerry John Rawlings

Sources said latest news of the move undertaken by the former NDC members to register the NDP came as a surprise to government since many thought of it as a mere threat to scare the NDC.
The NDP has as its logo a dove holding the ‘Gye Nyame’ (Except God) symbol with its beak in the same black, green, red and white colours as the NDC’s.
Officials of the NDC are jittery about the formation of this new party and are tight-lipped over the issue.
Fear factor
NDC National Chairman and Propaganda Secretary, Dr Kwabena Adjei, and Richard Quashigah declined to comment when DAILY GUIDE reached them for their thoughts in view of the fact that most of the founding members of the NDP were from the NDC.
“I have to know what is coming out first…I say I want to know what is happening first; I won’t respond now. I wish them good luck,” said Dr Adjei.
Mr Quashigah, a former reporter with Radio Ghana, noted, “Well, it is of no consequence to me so I have no comment…I don’t think the NDC has anything to do with some individuals who are believed to be forming a political party. After all, everybody has freedom of association.”
Sources said the decision to form the NDP by the disgruntled NDC members was borne out of frustration and the neglect of the core values of the ruling party by the Mills administration as often said by the NDC founder, Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu, who had virtually become strangers in their own party.
They said the party had been hijacked by “greedy bastards”.
Founding members of the NDP are tight-lipped over details about its leaders.
Dr Josiah-Aryeh, a law lecturer, is a former General Secretary of the NDC.
Shortly after the 2004 elections, he was suspended from his position following allegations of intended defection for pecuniary gains.
He had since not been too active in politics though he was occasionally seen at functions organized by the Rawlingses.
Little is known about the political background of Dr Rockson Mamboi except for the fact that he is considered one of the political strategists for Mrs. Rawlings.
Former NDC Parliamentary candidate for Ayawaso Central, Dr. Kwasi Ofei-Agyeman, who is part of the founding members of the NDP, indicated that they were waiting for the issuance of a certificate from the EC to roll out their next plan of action and begin an effective campaign towards the 2012 elections.