My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look at my works, ye mighty, and despair.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
TIMEO DANAOS ET DONA FERENTES. This Latin phrase literally means: “I fear the Danaans (Greeks), even those bearing gifts.” OR “I fear the Danaans (Greeks) even when they bear gifts.” The phrase is from Aenid 11.49 written by Virgil between 29 and 16BC, and expresses the need for caution in receiving any offer from anyone.
Honourable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information after receiving Anas’s tape on galamsey in which a Jubilee House official, one Bissue, was captured, declared: “Government will have the said tapes properly investigated using the raw unedited footage. If any persons are found to have SOLICITED MONIES or TAKEN BRIBES TO BEND THE RULES (emphasis ours) the necessary action will be taken.
We have emphasized those words because they touch on the raw nerves of what we saw about the judges portrayed in the tape ‘Ghana in the eyes of God’. Did the judges SOLICIT? Were the monies OFFERED by the undercover agents given as BRIBES or GIFTS? Why was there the rush to sack the judges without watching the RAW UNEDITED tapes? That could be then-and-now
A group of lawyers met at a point and were discussing the present twist in the Anas’s works. LAWYER 1: “We’re not debunking the earlier revelations when Anas undertook to be a mental patient at the Psychiatric Hospital, a factory worker at the biscuits producing company; a priest at Bangkok Prisons where Ghanaians were being tortured…and made mouth-watering revelations…” LAWYER 2: “…Nor are we discounting the undercover work at the Children’s Home… “LAWYER 3: “… Even though all these helped government to develop useful policies, I am concerned about the case of the judges…” LAWYER 4: “… Don’t you remember the original tape initially released had on it Tiger Eye P I in Collaboration with the Judicial Service…” LAWYER 5: “…So did the Chief Justice at the time, Georgina Wood, know about this?”… insensitivity, treachery of the highest order…” LAWYER 6: “…If we are not careful…this boy will expose the ‘nakedness’ of the big man with his wife…”
Some time ago, we had the temerity, call it audacity or impudence to write to challenge Anas and his style of entrapping the hapless judges. We had to swallow our words when our President said he was going to use ‘Anas’s Principle’ to arrest corruption in Ghana. We did not want to suffer the fate of vocal Kennedy Agyapong who has, demonstrably and avowedly, displayed his hatred for Anas’s style. Kennedy says he is ready to die for the truth – to expose the other side of Anas. (We did not want to taste this martyrdom, so we kept our mouths shut). Ken tells the story of Anas’s father issuing fake death certificate… “like father, like son”, or to go local, “]k]t] nnwo anomaa” ( a crab doesn’t produce a bird). Ken talks about the wealth of this boy, using Tiger Eye P I to do business… using land guards who include soldiers and policemen to take people’s land… The Assin North MP avers that Anas was “naturally born bad”, and calls on government to REINSTATE ALL THE JUDGES (and all the dismissed Judiciary Service workers; some of whom took a paltry GH¢5.00 to buy lunch, after making photocopies of documents for under-cover Anas.
We may be timorous souls, easily frightened, self-effacing, fearful, meek and mild, so we would not want to have a confrontation with a person whom Ministers, Parliamentarians, Security Personnel, et cetera are even afraid of, a person they kowtow to, a person who is alleged to vet Police Officers and recommend who should be the IGP! Who are we to question the integrity of a person who has got acclaims by the BBC, Al Jazeera and the like?
We are only repeating what others have stated. You know Gabby Otchere-Darko. He poses the following questions in “The Daily Statesman” of Monday March 4, 2019: “… whether (Anas’s exposes are) achieving anything remarkable beyond (1) ‘destroying’ the few ‘unlucky’ people who get caught in his trap; and (2) offering us great occasional entertainment? Gabby has ten questions to ask: The first, ‘Can Anas share with us his success rate in all his attempts to entrap the bad nuts?’ The second, ‘Is it not fundamentally the case that patronage and gift-giving are very much acceptable customs in our society in general…’ Gabby says ‘to be continued’, so we also say ‘to be continued’.
Meanwhile Anas’s GH¢25 million defamatory suit against Kennedy Agyapong is still hanging. To Kennedy, this amount is peanuts; we cannot say the same; sell ourselves and all our property, we cannot raise this amount. Anas is seeking general damages for libel and aggravated damages for libelous comments, published by Kennedy Agyapong. The General Legal Council had dismissed a complaint filed by Kennedy Agyapong, declining jurisdiction; over whether the Council could take disciplinary action against Anas as a lawyer.
‘He who seeks equity must do equity’ is one of the legal maxims that govern the way in which equity operates. These have links in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount-“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, the Qu’ran and the Gandhi’s Truth Force (satyagraha).
So, we have a population of almost 30 million, and one person (or three) are allowed to walk about veiled, sneaks into people’s homes and rooms veiled, goes to court veiled… collects awards veiled… so we do not even know whom we are dealing with. What! Should the quotation marks be twenty for the reader to see how we exclaimed? So, the ‘invisible man’ takes pictures, of people receiving ‘bribes’; shows these pictures to the world, without the victims being given the chance to ‘explain themselves’…leading to some deaths, some shame, some strokes (?),,,some (?),,.
Now, the pranks are being played on officials at the Jubilee House, and it has dawned on us to get ‘the raw, unedited tape’. Good, but why was not the same issue raised when it was the judges, Kofi Nyantakyi’s Number 12, …et cetera?
In Julius Caesar, Marcus Antonius in his speech says: “… Let but the commons hear this testament which pardon me, I do not mean to read – And they would go and kiss dead Caesar’s wounds And dip their napkins in the sacred blood. Yea, beg a hair of him for memory And, dying, mentioning it within their wills. Bequeathing it as a rich legacy unto their issue… ALL (Romans) The will, the will, we will hear Caesar’s will…” Macbeth in a soliloquy.“…We still have judgment here, that we but teach Bloody instructions which, being taught return to plague th’inventor. This even-handed justice Commends th’ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips…”. Ozymandias was a potentate in his kingdom; he advises us to reflect on what befell him, and…
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From Africanus Owusu – Ansah