Astonishingly, whilst the late Mills was joyfully delivering his euphonious state of the nation address, Vice-President John Mahama, who also happened to be the chairman of the Armed Forces Council, was blissfully entertaining delegations from Brazil and busily negotiating the acquisition of five jets, including the most expensive hangar without the knowledge of the late President Mills.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, the late President Mills became suspicious of the whole deal and decided to put a committee together to review the deal, according to Mr. Martin Amidu, the Attorney General under the Mills/Mahama administration and the current Special Prosecutor.
Disappointingly, though, according to Martin Amidu, the late Mills could not put his foot down and woefully allowed the committee to somehow turn a blind eye to his directives (Source: martinamidu.com).
As a matter of fact, there are serious questions here that Mahama must answer. So, it is not surprising that some patriotic Ghanaians have deemed it fit to take him to the Special Prosecutor.
In fact, Mahama and his teeming supporters can claim birth right to incorruptibility, but discerning Ghanaians can only take him seriously if he comes clean on the alleged corruption cases.
How can we advance as a nation when some conspiratorial plotters keep hiding behind party coloration, devoid of patriotism and rapaciously squandering our scarce resources to the detriment of the poor and disadvantage Ghanaians?
Sometime last year, Mr. Mahama was reported to have lamented inexorably: “Instead of focusing on the job to make Ghana a better place, every day they complain that an amount of money has gone missing. If money has been lost, conduct the investigation and arrest the perpetrators. Who has the power?”
But contrary to Mahama’s incessant denials of rampant corruption in his government, a competent court of jurisdiction convicted two of the numerous corruption suspects in the erstwhile NDC administration and sentenced them to six and twelve years respectively.
As if that was not enough, more recently, a competent court of jurisdiction convicted and sentenced to prison two former NDC employees of NCA.
Apparently, some concerned Ghanaians maintain that the sins of the four convicts are meagre in comparison with the other scandalous corruption cases which took place in the erstwhile Mahama administration.
That notwithstanding, the unhappy former President Mahama was reported to have lamented: “This trial by newspaper affects the credibility of the government. If you hear that several sums of money have gone missing yet no one has been arrested for prosecution, then you are destroying the confidence of people in the credibility of the government. So the trial by media must stop (ghanaweb.com).”
Perhaps someone ought to inform Mahama that the current Attorney General is seriously working towards bringing the suspects to book. Take, for example, on 14th March 2018, the state filed a case of causing financial loss against the former Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD and the CEO of Zeera Group of Companies and Agricult Ghana Limited, who have been accused of embezzling over GH¢260 million under the watch of Mr. Mahama.
In addition, the alleged SSNIT $72 million corruption scandal is in the law court. Besides, credible sources have confided in some of us that investigations are progressing steadily in a number of bribery and corruption cases which took place in the outgone Mahama’s administration.
There is also a possibility of the double salary NDC Members of Parliament having their day in the law courts.
We should also take solace in the fact that President Akufo-Addo has shown seriousness and commitment by establishing the Office of the Special Prosecutor with the responsibility of investigating, prosecuting and retrieving stolen monies from the corrupt public officials, including alleged corrupt appointees of the Mahama administration.
k.badu2011@gmail.com
From Badu, UK.