A Guide To Corruption (4). President Mills Cannot and Will Not Do This!
You can read all about the Mabey and Johnson judgment from the leading websites on Ghana. Each carries the story and details what I said in an earlier breaking news alert of August 7th. At the time, I wrote about the impending implosion and chronicled the history of the Mabey and Johnson bribery of NDC executives in another Guide to Corruption. Since then we have waited patiently for September 25th and this is just the beginning. I will dare to suggest that President Mills will make a show of investigating the issues involved and former President JJ Rawlings will pretend that all this happened under his nose and he knew nothing of it, even though his senior cabinet ministers were in the thick of it, and so was his wife.
President Mills has allegedly asked the Attorney General Betty Mould Iddrissu to investigate the Mabey and Johnson case in Ghana and spare no one found guilty of the offences established by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.
Sydney Casely-Hayford
Police fire tear gas at crowd in Asabee case
The former Information Minister, Hon. Asamoah Boateng is reported to have been arrested and locked in the BNI Cells pending further investigations. Peace FM sources say he went to the BNI headquarters in the morning, together with his wife and two lawyers, but the security personnel drove them away and locked him in their cells. Our reporter, Obeng Manu disclosed that there was no sign of releasing the victim. According to him, the BNI on two different occasions prevented Mr. Asamoah Boateng and his family from travelling abroad without a reason, so the latter had gone to inquire.
Results of our opinion poll, July 1, 2009
These results are the opinions of Readers of Ghana News Monthly newspaper and its related website, www.ghananewsmonthly.com They DO NOT represent the views of Ghanaians in general. Reader’s views were solicited between July 1 and July 12, 2009. We received 247 responses.
Sydney Casely-Hayford
A guide to Corruption (2) Mabey and Johnson
This past Friday, August 7, 2009, the case against Mabey was postponed, to be heard on September 25th this year. The UK has to prove that it is taking these corruption charges seriously, coming in the wake of their refusal to investigate the BAE’s Saudi Arabian arms deal and other cases presently before the UK SFO. One major disclosure made by Richard Alderman, Director of UK SFO is that Mabey and Johnson has agreed to pay “reparations” to both Ghana and Jamaica for bribery offences between 1994 and 2000. This admission immediately attaches guilt of some wrongdoing. How much was given, and who was bribed on our (Ghana) side is detailed in the UK SFO submission to the court, but unfortunately presiding Judge Rivlin chose to gag the press. The information is available, we just cannot broadcast in the public yet. But it will come out. The pressure is on the NDC government to accept this reparation.
Sydney Casely-Hayford
GHANAIAN IMMIGRANTS OVERWORKED, OVERSPENT, SHOPAHOLICS AND UNHAPPY?
THE GLOBAL ECONOMY HAS GONE down the toilet. How will that pose a threat to the Ghanaian Immigrants’ health, spending habits and well-being? And, can all this bad really be good? As jobs are disappearing our health, emotional and psychological ailments have increased.
Over the next several months, we will see increasing number of unemployment in our host countries .we will also see increasing governmental interventions in wide sectors of their economy as more businesses unfold. As the resulting pain of unemployment spreads wider and deeper, governmental welfare programs—from unemployment compensations, food stamps to medical benefits, will expand the government reach into every aspect of our lives. That will also unearth our dark immigration secrets –which will cause us some sleepless nights.
By Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi
NDC Manifesto in Scam
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is alleged to be have surreptitiously withdrawn the manifesto signed by the then candidate John Evans Atta Mills, with which the party ran its 2008 political campaign for last year’s elections, replacing it with a new one they refer to as ‘The New King James Version.’ Just a few weeks into the ceremonious first 100 days of the government, the ruling NDC has substituted the endorsed manifesto and put in circulation a brand new one with different content and devoid of the signature of President Mills. As it appears now, the belief of Ghanaians that they voted for the NDC based on a manifesto that would serve their interests has apparently been short-changed with the withdrawal of the original one.
Tsatsu Tsikata as Minister of Justice and Fair Play
In the lead-up to the 2008 presidential run-off, when then-NDC flagbearer Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills promised to make a drastic reduction in fuel prices the topmost priority of his first 100 days in office, we promptly knew, intuitively, that such campaign promise, like coital sweet-nothings, had to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. Now, true to our suspicions, Mr. Johnson Asiedu-Nketia – alias General Mosquito – the NDC general secretary, is telling the Ghanaian electorate that, in fact, the topmost priority of the Atta-Mills presidency, or administration, will be to speedily bump Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata out of the Nsawam Medium-Security Prison, where the former CEO of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has been serving a 5-year prison term for unduly using his official and public position to benefit himself, his cronies and private business associates (See “NDC Dedicates Electoral Victory to Tsatsu” Ghanaweb.com 1/3/09).
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Goodbye Koforidua, Au Revoir Boti Falls
Whether you come by the Nsawam-Suhum road or through the Akuapim hills, as a first time visitor to Koforidua, the amazing sight of Obuotabiri Mountain (the rock of Tabiri) greets you, and in seconds as you enter the city by car, you see streetlights and the beautiful dual carriage that ushers you into this beautiful city. Located at the confluence of the basins of the Densu and the Pawn-pawn in the New Juaben traditional, Koforidua lies between latitudes 6o and 7o North and between longitudes 1o30’ West and 0o30’ East. The youth affectionately call it ‘Koftown’ and it is shortened K’dua for the loveliness of its name. The city prides itself among cities of equal in Southern Ghana and as such, its residents are proud of announcing themselves as coming from Koftown.
By Carly Ahiable
Finance minister Baah Wiredu dies in South Africa
Ghana’s minister for Finance and Economic planning, Hon. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, passed away in a South Africa hospital yesterday.
“The government announces with deep sorrow and shock the death of Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, minister of finance and economic planning,” Kwadwo Mpiani, Ghana’s minister of presidential affairs, said in a statement. ”Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu passed away today after a short illness in a South African hospital,” the statement said. According to a source, in J’burg, he died suddenly while attending a conference. Another source claims he died after a short illness .
