Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Saturday October 25, 2014
The era of secret recordings appear to
have come to stay and it is messing up everybody. It is clearly expanding the
frontiers of political mischief.
It is said that one’s ‘freedom of speech’
ends at another person’s ‘right to freedom of peace and tranquility’. However,
both rights are severely curtailed when one’s freedom to privacy and ‘secrecy’
is disrespected by others.
Clearly, every Ghanaian has a right to
privacy as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. However, this critical constitutional
provision seems to be endangered by the release of so-called secret tape recordings
that have rocked the nation of late.
Interestingly, it heightens when we are
in the political season preparing for general elections. This clearly suggests that
it is the politicians who are behind most of the recordings of their opponents.
They run quickly to their friendly media especially the radio stations and try
to ‘destroy’ you once and for all. Even in instances where it becomes obvious
that you are not the one whose voice is being aired, they foist it on you using
their ‘hawkers’ popularly called social commentators sometimes aided by quack
journalists.
In fact, it is only in the Ghanaian political landscape that an
accuser is forcibly asked to prove his/her guilt or otherwise. The media,
particularly radio has allowed itself to be used as conduit for the propagation
of this act whether atrocious or unalarming.
In the era of technology where gadgets
have become sophisticated, you do not take your interactions with others for
granted. I mean, your security should never be compromised because you do not
know who is recording your conversation. Once the radio stations highlight it,
trust the propaganda tabloids to feed on it the next day.
We have witnessed disturbing trends in
such acts but nobody including the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) whose
members are fronting such ungodly operations or the regulator National Media
Commission (NMC) seems to have found antidote to these things, not even the
courts!
Some of these recordings have shaken the
foundations of our fledgling democracy and impaired the expansion of the
frontiers of media freedom.
Dou you remember the secret recordings of
Atta Akyea, MP for Abuakwa South, Baba Jamal a deputy Minister and MP for
Akwatia, Anthony A. Karbo former NPP Youth Organizer, Kofi Adams Spokes person
for former President Rawlings, Yaw Boateng Gyan NDC National Organizer, Sammy
Awuku NPP Youth Organizer, Victoria Hammah the sacked Deputy Minister of
Communications, Minority leader Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu among others?
Atta
Akyea’s troubles
In lawyer Atta Akyea’s case, Radio
Gold’s ‘The Gold Power Drive’ on Friday, December 21, 2008 in the heat of the
elections, aired a tape that some NPP stalwarts (Atta Akyea and Alhaji Malik) where
they were contemplating on why a judge who adjudicated a case had ruled in
favour of the Electoral Commission while giving them the indication that he was
on their side when they spoke to him prior to the ruling. The MP never got the
chance to clear himself even though the NDC used the information for propaganda
purposes for many months.
Baba
Jamal’s ‘Black & White’
Baba Jamal’s tape of August 2011 brought
heated debate. Do you remember the ‘Say white when it is black’ tape attributed
to, then Deputy Minister of Information and now with Local Government? He was
caught on tape luring a group of journalists to 'kill' stories which will
negatively affect the government and rather highlight the positive ones.
Allegedly recorded at Bolgatanga, Baba Jamal was supposedly heard telling the
journalists that they had been put on National Youth Employment Programme
(NYEP) now GYEEDA payroll and that they would be paid monthly for dancing to
the tune of the government. He came back fighting hard, saying that that the
series of such tapes were the handiwork of the NPP and were being circulated to
impugn the integrity of himself and other government officials.
Fonkar
Games
Kofi Adams was also a victim in 2011. It
would be recalled that a tape recording emerged after the Get Atta Mills
Elected (GAME) and Friends Of Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings (FONKAR) contest in
Sunyani where the late President John Evans Atta Mills retained the 2012
flagbearership position with 97% win over Mrs Rawlings who later broke away to
form a new party called the National Democratic Party (NDP) on account of
claims of being cheated at the polls in Sunyani.
Karbo’s
cross
Anthony Karbo was allegedly caught on a
secret tape planning to recruit mercenaries for purposes of the December 2012
general elections. It had been brought up by the defunct NDC ultra group
Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP) led by Felix Kwakye Ofosu who is now a
deputy minister and sent to the Police CID for investigation. Karbo denied the
voice in the tape, saying it was a manipulation but the NDC would not accept
the defence of the NPP members.
Yaw
Boateng Gyan ‘police’
National Organizer of the ruling NDC,
Yaw Boateng-Gyan was also heard on a secret tape conspiring to hire thugs to
disrupt the December 7, 2012 general elections. Indeed, the exposé in the tape
caused intense fear and panic among Ghanaians because Mr. Boateng-Gyan was
heard hatching plans to use the thugs to infiltrate the security agencies.
In the controversial tape, the NDC
organizer was heard confirming high-level governmental support for the
activities of the thugs who would be conscripted to pose as security operatives
during the election. Their modus operandi would be to cause mayhem during the
elections in a bid to favour the ruling party. When the tape went viral in
August 2012, a clearly shaken Boateng-Gyan publicly admitted that the voice
indeed belonged to him. He also admitted to the diabolic plans attributed to
him in the tape, but tried to diffuse impact of the content.
Sammy
Awuku on air
In August 2013, an alleged leaked secret
audio tape of Sammy Awuku was aired by pro NDC radio stations. A male voice,
purported to be that of the enterprising young politician was heard telling
some party communicators in the UK that the party’s ‘attacks’ on the
nine-member panel of the Supreme Court hearing the landmark election petition
had been ‘targeted at a particular individual’.
He later reacted in a statement: “I
state very emphatically that the said tape and whatever by-products arising are
totally fabricated and doctored and that I have never made the kinds of
statements contained in the said tape anywhere. I know absolutely nothing about
it and I would entreat the general public and the media to treat the supposed
tape with the contempt it deserves.”
Vikileaks
scandal
In November last year, a tape which came
to be known as Vikileaks and which more or less ended Victoria Hammah’s political
career was played variously by the media. On the said tape she was heard
telling a female interlocutor that she will quit politics as soon as she was
able to make at least $1 Million. On the same tape, the then Deputy
Communications Minister, was heard saying Gender, Children and Social Protection
Minister, Nana Oye Lithur who is wife of the President’s Lawyer, Tony Lithur,
in the election petition hearing, might have influenced the final verdict on
the election petition case. The expose’ ended the young lady’s ministerial
ambition when she was subsequently sacked by the President.
Intra
party scuffle
Sometimes, the battle is fought
internally among party members and the urge to ‘destroy an enemy within’ has
always been very high. Recent so-called secret tape recordings of Mohammed Amin
Anta and Minority Leader Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu in the run up to the just-ended
NPP flagbearership primary point to that fact.
Amin
Anta’s voice
Amin Anta was recorded on a tape saying
that Nana Akufo-Addo gave him US$5,000 and offered him three positions to
choose from. He later reacted and said it was being facilitated by the NPP
flagbearer’s opponents who were dazed by the overwhelming endorsement he (Nana
Akufo-Addo) was receiving from the NPP fraternity.
Minority
Leader
Minority Leader Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu was
not spared either, he was said to have criticised people close to Nana
Akufo-Addo, for displaying extravagant lifestyle in the run-up to the 2012
elections. On a secret audio recording which was aired variously, the Minority
Leader alleged that some people around Nana Akufo-Addo spent lavishly during
the campaign when the candidate was modest. He later reacted, describing it as
mischievous.
NDC
Minister shouts NPP slogan
Deputy Easter Regional Minister Mavis
Ama Frimpong has had her share of this unholy practice when she was recorded
secretly at an NDC meeting in Koforidua. She was caught on tape as chanting
“Kukurudu!” the slogan of her party’s bitterest rival NPP. The incident
occurred when she was addressing a meeting organised by the National Democratic
Congress (NDC) as part of the campaign for NDC Chairman Dr. Kwabena Adjei who
is seeking re-election.
She later threatened to invoke Antoa
Nyamaa, the dreaded river deity on her attackers ostensibly to clear her name.
Living
in denial
Almost all the people attributed on the
tapes have denied except a few. Yaw Boateng Gyan was able to admit that it was
his voice but denied all the motives behind the recordings even though it was
clear he was gathering thugs to disrupt the 2012 general elections. Amin Anta also
admitted recognized his voice on the tape but also rejected the motive behind
it.
Security
agencies indifference
Curiously, the security hierarchy do not
seem to see anything wrong with the content of the tapes especially when it
involves a member of the ruling party. Then National Security Coordinator,
Larry Gbevlo Lartey, shockingly dismissed the Yaw Boateng Gyan tape, saying it
was not worth his while. However, anytime a member from the opposition party
was caught on tape, the security agencies made frantic efforts to investigate
the matter even if there has not been any complaint as it should. Conversely,
when the tape is about a member of the NDC, the same agencies especially
National Security and the Police CID develop cold feet and show clear indifference.
Stemming
the tide
Godfred Yeboah Dame, an attorney at the
Akufo-Addo Chambers in Accra, offered his expert advice on the secret recording
saga saying even though there are strict rules of people’s privacy as a
constitutional right, the Ghanaian legal system simply has not seen enough
precedents to tackle the abuse of covert recordings of private or public
personalities. He says the acceptance of such evidence from secret tape
recordings becomes a dicey call for judges.
“Some courts may say that however the
evidence was brought in, it is still valid, whether the evidence was stolen or
not, it is still evidence,” he said, adding, “Many courts are however leaning
towards the protection of privacy,” he said.
According to Lawyer Dame, even security
personnel require special court orders to be able to listen in to people’s
conversations Apparently, the politicians know the complex legal technicalities
involved in using evidence from covert operations to prosecute anybody, so at
the moment, they freely use the tool to deal irreparable damages to their
opponents.
Some have described the perpetrators as
‘irresponsible’ – that is if you are affected by the expose’ or there is damage
to your reputation - while others who are in favour of such acts have called it
‘the evils men do in our society’. Can we trust their motive especially when
the majority of these tapes only seem to indict or undo one political bigwig or
the other?
Many so-called secret recordings might
pop up as the political temperature rises but with their credibility now
experiencing a nose-dive their days are definitely numbered as tools of
political mischief.
