IMANI HOLDS WINNER-TAKES-ALL DEBATE

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, November 28, 2014

There was a heated but friendly debate at Alisa Hotel yesterday on whether Ghana has a ‘Winner-Takes-All’ constitution.

The scholarly exposition was between Prof. H Kwasi Prempeh, a constitutional law and governance expert who argued in favour of an amendment of some aspects of the 1992 Constitution to curtail some of the powers of the executive arm of government and Kofi Bentil, a lawyer and Vice President of IMANI who pushed for a vibrant civil society that would force public office holders to respect the tenets of ‘our workable’ constitution.

The forum moderated by Nana Yaa Ofori Atta, a communications expert, was put together by IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, a policy analysis think tank as part of its 10the anniversary celebrations.

In the end, a slight majority of the audience came into a consensus that Ghana indeed has a ‘Winner-Takes-All’ constitution with the executive arm of government having overreaching powers that needed to be curtailed to safeguard the country’s democracy.

Prof. Prempeh was the first to make submissions when he said “the constitution is overly permissive and flawed,” adding “it is a Winner-Takes-All Constitution.”

He said the constitution must always be interpreted against a certain ‘context’ and ‘background’ advising “people should not read the constitution as though you are a lawyer but rather as a politician looking for opportunities to entrench himself in power.”

“The permissiveness of the constitution creates the Winner-Takes-All situation that we have. The constitution can empower and constrain at the same time.”

Prof. Prempeh said he has always been against the idea of power-sharing saying “I believe that the party and the President elected into office must be allowed to keep or select their own for positions to execute their agenda.”

He said “the President under our constitution has more powers that a good President needs and at the same time has more powers that a bad President needs,” saying “all powers without restraint is a recipe for disaster,” adding “when you allow a politician more powers the outcome is predictable…he will use that power to further entrench his political agenda.”

Mr. Bentil disagreed with the Professor and said the constitution could not be the cause of Ghana’s Winner-Takes-All problem but rather Winner-Takes-All syndrome or mindset that could be traced to the attitude of politicians.

“The constitution allows the President freedom to take decisions. The same constitution urges the President to be all-inclusive and if the President wants to do it he can easily do it.”

He said there are express provisions in the constitution to cater for the country’s needs and there was no need to put everything on paper saying “ if we have to put everything on paper we will be locking down our system.”

“We have built a culture where our public office holders are expected to do certain things. The constitution is not the problem but the attitude of the public office holders to the constitution.”

Mr. Bentil said “the constitution does not determine the attitude of politicians. Changing the constitution does not change the attitude of public office holders. Civil society and the people have to rather insist they do the right things.”

He said the institutions of state must rather be empowered to checkmate one another and in that way the constitution will be seen to be working well.

Felix Owusu Agyepong, former Majority leader in Parliament shared Mr. Bentil’s view that the constitution is not ‘Winner-Takes-All’ but rather the attitude of the politicians that had brought Ghana to that situation.

However, Dr. Kwesi Jonah of IDEG, Golda Addo an Advocate of Renewable Energy Development for Ghana and Angela Dwamena Aboagye, a long standing gender activist all agreed with Prof. Prempeh that the executive arm of government was too powerful and there was the need for effective checks and balances.

Still, there were other contributors who still shared Mr. Bentil’s opinion that the talk of Winner-Takes-All was due to the attitude of public office holders who needed to follow laid down rules to ensure the sanctity of the constitution.

3 MPs SUE GNPC OVER $700m LOAN

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, November 28, 2014

Three New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs have sued the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) for seeking a foreign loan without parliamentary approval.

The three, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh and Samuel Atta Akyea MPs for Tafo Pankrono, Manhyia South and Abuakwa South constituencies respectively want an Accra Commercial Court to stop the GNPC headed by Alex Mould from acquiring a $700 million facility from a foreign bank.

Reliefs

The writ, filed the Faibille & Faibille, lawyers of the MPs yesterday want the court to declare that the GNPC “contracting, procuring, securing or otherwise acquiring or drawing down on the Loan Facility or any other loan without prior approval of Parliament is unconstitutional, unlawful, null and void.”

They also want a declaration that “defendant’s decision to undertake a programme of projects without parliamentary approval is ultra vires the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011 (Act 815) and is therefore null and void.”

Furthermore, the plaintiffs want a perpetual injunction restraining the GNPC and its agents “from contracting, securing, procuring or drawing down on a loan facility of $700 million or any other loan from any financial institution whether situate in Ghana or not or embarking on any project, works and programmes without prior parliamentary scrutiny and approval,” as well as any order the court will deem fit.

Statement of claim

In their statement of claim, the MPs averred that they got to know about the GNPC’s intention to secure a loan on November 10, 2014 when  Statesman Newspaper reported that the defendant was set to contract a loan of $1.200 million to be repaid in five years and secured by oil belonging to the people of Ghana.

According to the MPs, myjoyonline.com the following day published the GNPC’s reaction to the media stories in respect of the alleged speculated loan facility.

The plaintiffs said the GNPC confirmed in the statement to the media that it was indeed acquiring a $700 million facility at an interest rate calculated per three month LIBOR plus 3.9% for a five-year term.

“Plaintiffs say that defendant is to execute the Loan Facility agreement on or about November 20, 2014 with the draw-down of $350 million of the Loan Facility on November 25, 2014.”

Terms of loan facility

According to the MPs the GNPC said it was going to use proceeds of the loan facility to among other things augment its working capital, including oil and gas trading working capital needs and build up capital since state capitalization for its operations ends 15 years from the commencement of Petroleum Revenue Management Act in 2011.

They corporation the plaintiff said will also use the proceeds to ensure lower gas price to Ghanaian consumers and for cheaper electricity as well as secure a low interest facility at 4.43% for a 5 year tenure.”

The plaintiffs said the GNPC had said that the facility was “better than the 22% interest which the state would pay on the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) project ($493 million) or the 15% interest which the state will pay on the TEN Field Gas project ($36 million) if the investors were to pre-finance the projects.”

Additionally the plaintiffs averred that according to the Defendant, the facility is expected to provide guarantees for the OCTP contractors for the off-take of natural gas from the field, raise a bank guarantee of about $200 to US$300 million.

Contention

The MPs say they will contend that “the projects have not been approved by Parliament as part of Defendant’s annual program of works in the manner stated and contemplated by Respondent in the myjoyonline interview which approval is a statutory requirement pursuant to Section 7 (3)(b) of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (Act 815) (hereinafter, “Act 815”).”

“Plaintiffs will further contend that defendant cannot spend or borrow to spend on projects outside of its approved program of works,” adding they will also contend that “defendant purporting to engage in unapproved projects would constitute an illegality and unlawful conduct.”

Parliamentary approval

The plaintiffs insisted that GNPC is not authorized by law to spend or borrow to spend without parliamentary approval of the projects adding “plaintiffs say that although defendant intends to draw-down on the Loan Facility on or about November 25, 2014, the relevant agreement in connection therewith has neither been scrutinized by Parliament nor same approved by Parliament in accordance with Article 181 (3) and 181(4) of the Constitution, Section 7 of the Loans Act 1970 (Act 335) and Section 7(3)(b) of Act 815.”

The MPs said statements in the GNPC’s agreement showed clearly that the corporation “is merely acting as a vehicle for government to acquire loans without parliamentary approval.”

“Plaintiffs say that Defendant is a statutory corporation entirely capitalized by the Republic, its funds are public funds within the meaning and intendment of Article 175 of the Constitution of Ghana and cannot enter into loan agreements or contract the Loan Facility without the knowledge and consent of Parliament.”

The MPs said GNPC was established by an Act of Parliament, its budget, including administrative expenses and programmes are approved by Parliament and its funding is restricted by an Act of Parliament out of discrete funds owned by the Republic exclusively.

GYEEDA TRIAL WITNESS GRILLED

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By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

A witness who persistently denied knowledge of pre-financing activities in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) trial yesterday had hot exchanges with counsel for the accused persons on trial.

Dr. Shaibu Ahmed Gariba, former Director General of Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) testifying as the fifth prosecution witness (PW5) did not want to accept the fact that there was a pre-financing activity by Phillip Akpeena Assibit’s Goodwill International Group (GIG) even though a letter already in evidence showed clearly he (witness) even endorsed it with his signature.

Request letter

The letter written on May 10, 2011 titled “Bank of Ghana Cheque Number 018931 from NYEP” specifically directed the central bank to pay GH¢800,000 into a MDPI/GIG Oil and Project account.

In the said letter, the GIG and MDPI were said to have since 2009 been collaborating in the provision of services to the NYEP (now GYEEDA) then headed by MP for Chiana Paga, Abuga Pele who is on trial alongside Assibit for causing financial loss to the state.

GH¢10million

The GIG according to the letter had contract with the NYEP to prefund and deliver Oil and Gas training for NYEP beneficiaries and as a result had prefunded activities and sourced institutional support from the MDPI and effectually delivered three modules of the oil and gas training.

The letter jointly endorsed by the witness as Director General of MDPI and Assibit as Management Consultant said the cheque represented a part payment for training fees of nearly GH¢10million for 5,000 beneficiaries of the NYEP accumulated over two years service and prefunding activities of NYEP by the GIG.

Abuga Pele faces witness

Dr. Gariba during cross-examination by Abuga Pele’s counsel Karl Adongo told the court that he could not attest to the fact that GIG pre-financed the oil and gas training and said he was certain that “MDPI didn’t pre-finance anything.”

The witness admitted that in all the agreements signed between MDPI and GIG, none of the contracts had anything to do with Abuga Pele directely but insisted that the NDC MP was involved indirectly because the NYEP sent participants for the oil and gas training.

“In the oil and gas training we did some work with GIG but we had no direct dealings with A2 (Abuga Pele). We didn’t do any consultancy service with A2. They only sent people to be trained under the oil and gas programme,” the witness told the court presided over by Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe.

Assibit vrs Witness

Concluding the cross-examination of the witness, Raymond Bagnabu representing Assibit had alleged that the witness used a surveyor called Alhaji Sey to collect money from A1 (Assibit) for his private building project at Trade Fair Site, La, but Dr. Gariba denied.

He said the agreement between GIG and MDPI on the Youth Enterprise Development (YED) project was signed was dependent on the arrival of the $65million from the World Bank but when given a copy of the agreement and pushed by counsel to state which part of the agreement said so, the witness said “It is not stated here categorically.”

He insisted that he did not know that GIG used MDPI personnel including Jamal and Karim in their consultancy services and said the he heard about an office called Project Resource Mobilization but never visited the said office.

Dr. Gariba admitted travelling in the vehicle of GIG for field work but said it was in respect of the oil and gas project which they were executing with Assibit’s outfit and not the YED project.

He said at the launch of Exit Plans for the NYEP at Alisa Hotel he delivered a speech as MDPI official  but it was the media that misrepresented him after counsel had said the witness praised the collaboration between his outfit and the GIG on the YED project.

Long adjournment

The case was subsequently adjourned until February 23, next year for the prosecution to bring its next set of witnesses.

So far, Nuru Hamidan former NYEP Deputy National Coordinator in charge of Operations and now MCE for Asokore Mampong, Gladys Ghartey current Head of United Nations Systems at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mohammed Pelpuo, Head of the Business Development Unit at NYEP as well as Clement Kofi Humado, former Minister of Youth and Sports have since testified and cross-examined.

Accused persons

Abuga Pele and Philip Akpeena Assibit are standing trial for the various roles they played, which the Attorney General’s Department said caused huge financial loss to the state.

The MP is accused of wilfully causing financial loss to the state to the tune of GH¢3,330,568.53 while Assibit is being tried for defrauding the state of an amount equivalent to $1,948,626.68.

The two have pleaded not guilty and are currently on bail. They were present in court yesterday.

NPP ELECTORAL REFORM COMMITTEE IN MOTION

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By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

The Election Reforms Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will hold its maiden meeting today to discuss the country’s electoral process.

The biggest opposition party is insisting that should the Electoral Commission led by Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan fail to embark on the reforms even as directed by the Supreme Court, the commission would be bringing chaos into the country in 2016.

Agenda

The committee chaired by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, running mate of the NPP Presidential Candidate for the 2016 general election is expected to build consensus and present a common position on the Voters’ Register, limited registration, eligibility of voters as well as audit of election results.

Peter Mac Manu, a member of the committee and former National Chairman of the party will chair today’s meeting since Dr Bawumia is out of town.

The members will also sort out issues on receipt of the final Voters’ Register, input of the political parties in the electoral process and other pertinent issues bothering on elections in general.

Supreme Court guide

A member of the NPP Elections Reform Committee, Eugene Boakye Antwi  said the committee will be guided by the evidence adduced during the Landmark Presidential Election Petition in the aftermath of the 2012 general election which the court controversially declared for President John Mahama.

“We shall now tackle a number of the issues which arose from the Presidential Election Petition from the Supreme Court so as to suggest certain reforms which if ignored will tragically continue to haunt the Republic,” Mr. Antwi said.

Discrepancies

 “Ghana’s Voters’ Register has been a subject matter of controversy to date. In the Supreme Court, matters of concern were raised. Yet the EC announced on 9th May 2014 that it intended to carry out limited voter registration intended to register Ghanaians who have attained age 18 since the last registration in 2012 and also for those who were above 18 at that time, but could not register in 2012.”

“It is pertinent to ask: While there are problems with the Register, why don’t we clean it before further additions? And what is the level of consultation with other stakeholders? Why is the public being taken for granted? When will the EC open up to public confidence building measures?”

Jaundiced Register

The committee member said that the case at the Supreme Court revealed clearly that “all is not well with Ghana’s register,” adding “a case in point was the provision of different voters register to the New Patriotic Party, for instance.”

In the course of the trial, the NPP had said that total number of registered voters that the EC furnished the petitioners’ party (the NPP) was 14,031,680 but it subsequently came to the notice of the Petitioners that the EC had on Sunday, 9th December 2012, declared the total number of registered voters as 14,158,890.

“Furthermore, on the same date, the EC posted on its website the total number of registered voters as 14,031,793 showing a clear disparity of 127,097,” adding “the Chairman of the EC, during the trial, could not provide any cogent reason for this discrepancy.”

He said the party’s research showed that the results declared indicated that the total number of registered voters for the parliamentary election was 13, 628,817 adding “this was the same figure given earlier to the political parties before the election.”

“This figure was clearly understood to cover both Parliamentary and Presidential since we registered once and for both. However, the moment the final results were pronounced, the EC indicated and gazetted later that the figure for the total registered voters for the Presidential election was 14,158,890.”

Cooked Figures

He said “this figure had never featured before! Some alleged that the difference of 530,073 had been manufactured last minute to give “votes” to Candidate Mahama.”

 “Notably, by the EC’s own declaration the total votes for Candidate Mahama was 5,574,761 and the total for Akufo-Addo was 5,248,898. The difference was 325,863.”

Overseas Voters

He said when the EC was confronted about the difference, the commission had explained that the difference in the numbers between presidential votes and parliamentary votes was due to overseas registered voters who were registered for presidential voting but not parliamentary voting but in court it was able to provide only 705 registered voters.”

“The simple arithmetical difference of 529,368 “ghost” votes would never have been released or known and would have remained a matter of allegations and counter-allegations, controversy and dispute till today.”

Padded Votes

“The results declared the NDC Presidential candidate had a total of 5,574,761 votes while the total votes for all the NDC Parliamentary candidates (by which they had majority in Parliament) was 5,127,641 votes. 

The difference was 447,121 votes. It was useful to wonder how this excess vote of 447,121 was not far apart from 530,073 that suddenly appeared on the register to cater for the votes of the winner.”

Country Comparison

He said Nigeria with a population of 162,470,737 has a voter population of 67,764,327, representing 41.7% while Kenya, with a population of 41,609,728 has a voter population of 14,362,189 representing 34.50%.

“Tanzania, with 42.50% and Senegal with 41.50% of registered voters to their total populations are all significantly lower than Ghana’s. South Africa boasts of a voter population of 25,390,159 out of a population of some 53 million people, representing 47.9% of the total population.”

Mr. Antwi said the NPP will recommend strongly “a comprehensive Public Audit to be conducted into the current Voters’ Register with international participation, as a guarantee to its credibility.”

RUBY GIRLS FLED WITH COCIANE

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that the Ghanaian woman, Nayele Ametefeh aka Ruby Adu-Gyamfi aka Angel arrested with 12.5 kilos of cocaine in London Heathrow Airport on November 10 did not travel alone but with two other ladies whose whereabouts are unknown.

Sources say she allegedly left Accra in the company of the two other ladies who were believed to be part of the cocaine ring that was smashed by the British law enforcement agents.

However, the two ladies were said to have fled after seeing their ‘baroness’ grabbed by the British security system.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that the replay of the Close Circuit Television, CCTV recordings indicated that Ruby Adu-Gyamfi used the VVIP wing together with her colleagues for the abortive trip; It was facilitated by some top state officials.

Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah had said on Radio Gold’s news analysis programme Alhaji & Alhaji at the weekend that three people who allegedly aided Nayele Ametefeh have been arrested to help in unraveling how the drug baroness used the VVIP for drug trade leading to her arrest in London.

Fresh Arrests

It later turned out that a senior official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nii Ashietey Armah who is in charge of the VVIP section and two other officers, Ahmed Abubakar and Theophilus Kissi were the people picked up for questioning  in connection with Nayele Ametefeh’s arrest.

According to the source, a careful review of the CCTV images showed that two other ladies who also allegedly had 5kgs each of the cocaine passed through the VVIP section in the company of Nayele Ametefeh to board the BA078 flight to Heathrow.

Alhaji Influence

Furthermore, the Alhaji whose name came up strongly during the initial interrogation of the three arrested people has been indentified one Alhaji Dauda who is currently at large.

He was said to have placed a telephone call to the VVIP officials arrested and told them his ‘people’ were to travel and needed their assistance in boarding formalities.

Ruby Girls

Reports in the United Kingdom have it that upon realizing they were being monitored at Heathrow, the two colleagues of Nayele Ametefeh allegedly left their stuff behind the plane and bolted but the ‘ring leader’ mustered courage and surged forward brandishing her diplomatic passport which the NDC government is vehemently denying it had issued her.

Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, MP for Assin Central appears to have lend credence to the facts when he told Citi FM over the weekend that two ladies in question reportedly returned to Accra same day and subsequently absconded to neighbouring Togo.

The Mr Agyapong’s version of unfolding events and other mind-blowing allegations he made have gone unchallenged by the NDC government and its communication team.

Double Identity

News emerging also has it that Nayele Ametefeh also uses many names on different travelling documents.

Apart from Nayele Ametefeh, she is reported to be using Angel, Ruby Adu-Gyamfi and now Irene Tawiah among others.

On the fateful day at Heathrow, she was said to be carrying passports issued by the governments of both Austria and Ghana with the name Nayele Ametefeh in them.

The government however, continues to dispute the Diplomatic Passport bit even though an Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung published that Ruby brandished a diplomatic passport when suspicious security details at the Heathrow Airport stopped her.

She was said to be carrying three passports at the time of her arrest but it is still unclear what name she had on the third passport.

NACOB Cover Up

The arrest of the drug dealer appears to have embarrassed the government leading to the dissolution of the Governing Board of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB).

In an obvious attempt at cover up, NACOB had claimed that it collaborated with its British counterparts in arresting the drug baroness.

It took a terse statement from the British High Commission in Accra to dismiss the collaboration assertion.

According to the statement by the High Commission, even though the UK authorities have been working closely with NACOB since 2006, they “had no prior knowledge of the intentions of Ms Nayele Ametefeh before flying from Accra to London on 9/10 November.”

“UK authorities work closely with NACOB to ensure that, wherever possible, any potential drug trafficker to the UK from Ghana is arrested here in Ghana and not permitted to board a flight in order to traffic drugs”, the statement emphasized.

NACOB had said in a press release last week Monday that the suspect “was arrested on the 10th of November, 2014 through the collaborative effort of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and its British partners.”

The statement signed by NACOB’s Deputy Executive Secretary (E&C) Richard Nii Lante Blankson said that Ms. Ametefeh travelled on an Austrian passport.

“It is worthy to note that Ms. Nayele Ametefe travelled on Austrian passport number P4187659 and not on Ghanaian Diplomatic passport as being speculated. She also had in her possession an ordinary Ghanaian passport number G0364497 issued on 3rd August, 2012.”

Alarm Blow

Ruby is said to have had her luggage brought safely into the first class section of the particular British Airways flight using her connections in the Ghanaian establishment.

Sources close to the operation that nailed her say that Ruby was spotted by other first class passengers trying to fit 2kg of her consignment into her hand bag after it became difficult for the 12.5kg drug to enter the luggage compartment of the plane.

These passengers alerted the crew members who in turn informed ground staff at Heathrow who informed the Border security leading to her arrest.

On arrival at Heathrow, border security officials, who had ordered only the first class passengers to disembark, quickly asked her to step aside to be searched.

This request is said to have infuriated Ruby, who questioned the security officials, pulling out her Ghanaian diplomatic passport in the process.

Sources say upon her arrest, three top officials of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States quickly jetted off to London, within 4 hours of her arrest, to interrogate her on various matters of concern to American officials in their unending war on narcotics.

THREE ARRESTED OVER RUBY COCAINE - USED VVIP

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday, November 24, 2014

It has emerged that the Ghanaian woman arrested with 12.5 kilos of cocaine in London Heathrow Airport on November 10 used the VVIP lounge of the Kotoka International Airport in Accra for her abortive trip.

Meanwhile, three of her suspected collaborators have been nabbed.

The VVIP section is reserved high profile individuals including ministers of state as well as other top diplomats.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that the replay of the Close Circuit Television, CCTV recordings indicated that Nayele Ametefeh aka Ruby Adu-Gyamfi used the VVIP wing for her trip to London and that some three people who allegedly aided her were also unearthed.

Latest Arrests

Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane-Boamah said on Radio Gold’s news analysis programme Alhaji & Alhaji last Saturday that three people have been arrested in connection with the arrest of Nayele Ametefeh but refused to mention their names.

However, DAILY GUIDE sources revealed that the three arrested included an officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who is attached to the airport.

The three were all tracked down after security officials reviewed the Close Circuit Television images at the airport.

DAILY GUIDE also learnt that an Alhaji whose name came up strongly during the initial interrogation of the three arrested people is being hotly pursued. “Another person whose name was mentioned by all the three individuals who are arrested is yet to be arrested. That person is been pursued vigorously by the security agencies”, Dr Omane-Boamah said.

More names pop up

News emerging also has it that Nayele Ametefeh also uses many names on different travelling documents.

Apart from Nayele Ametefeh, she is reported to be using Angel, Ruby Adu-Gyamfi and now Irene Tawiah among others.

Diplomatic Passport

On the fateful day at Heathrow, she was said to be carrying passports issued by the governments of both Austria and Ghana with the name Nayele Ametefeh in them.

The government however, continues to dispute the Diplomatic Passport bit even though an Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung published that Ruby brandished a diplomatic passport when suspicious security details at the Heathrow Airport stopped her.

She was said to be carrying three passports.

Wanted List

The busted drug courier, Nayele Ametefeh, according to report has been on the wanted list of Ghana’s Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), since 2009.

A former NACOB Commander at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport, Anthony Smith - who said he is very familiar with the lady involved told Joy FM’s Newsfile programme Saturday that Ruby has several aliases which may have aided her to slip through the security net all this while until her arrest on November 10 by UK security authorities at Heathrow.

According to the former NACOB Commander, who now domiciles outside Ghana, Ruby, also used ‘Ruby Appiah’, to traffic drugs years ago.

He said the Ghanaian lady, normally uses unsuspecting people at the Airport, such as cleaners, to help her smuggle the drugs onboard the plane without raising any suspicion from security officials at the Airport.

Smith said Ruby used that strategy to outwit security at the Airport in 2009 when she attempted smuggling about 5kgs of cocaine with the help of a cleaner called Daniel Kabutey, who hid the narcotic substance in a trashcan, but was caught and jailed.

Cleaner was driving state of the art BMW car before his arrest with Ruby eluding arrest at the time.

NACOB Governing Board

The arrest of the Ruby appears to be shaking the foundation of the narcotics law enforcement body NACOB, as President John Mahama at the weekend dissolved the Governing Board of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) with immediate effect.

The terse statement signed by Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani did not give reasons for the dissolution of the board but said “further action will follow in due course.”

At all material times, the Government Board was chaired Naval Captain Baffuor Assasie-Gyimah (Rtd) with personalities like Rev. Dr. Fred Deegbe, the immediate past General Secretary of Christian Council of Ghana and others as members.

When news broke in the local media about the arrest of Ruby, NACOB quickly issued a press release claiming it ‘collaborated’ with their British counterparts in the operation, a statement that later turned out to be false, as the British authorities through the High Commission in Ghana flatly denied any collaboration.

Even though NACOB had given ‘details’ about Ruby’s travelling documents the statement failed to  explain where the suspect whose cocaine haul valued at over $5million boarded the plane.

They were also silent on which section of the airport Ruby used to board the BA78 flight on November 9.

NACOB Shot down

The claim of collaboration was shot down immediately by the British High Commission in Accra and even the Minister of Communications.

The High Commission issued a release dismissing the statement by NACOB by saying that the UK security there was no such collaboration as claimed.

According to the High Commission, even though the UK authorities have been working closely with NACOB since 2006, they “had no prior knowledge of the intentions of Ms. Nayele Ametefe before flying from Accra to London on 9/10 November.”

“UK authorities work closely with NACOB to ensure that, wherever possible, any potential drug trafficker to the UK from Ghana is arrested here in Ghana and not permitted to board a flight in order to traffic drugs”, the statement had emphasized.

The Communications Minister for his part also said “I discounted NACOB’s claims that they collaborated with the British intelligence with respect to this particular arrest. However to give them the benefit of the doubt I also indicated that if they release evidence to contradict that discount that I had put out there, I was ready to change my position.”

Akrasi Must Go!

In the midst of the confusion over the $5million cocaine haul, pressure is also mounting on the Executive Secretary of NACOB, Yaw Akrasi Sarpong to resign following what many believed was the failure of the state institution to stem the narcotic trade in the country.

For instance, financial analyst and anti corruption campaigner, Sydney Casely-Hayford said on Citi FM that the seeming silence of Mr. Akrasi Sarpong, over the cocaine saga was “suspicious”.

“Akrasi Sarpong is a very very outspoken, hard-talking, open person. I don’t know of any incident that has actually even infringed on the corners of NACOB that Akrasi Sarpong has not said a word about. So there is something amiss in all of these,” he contended.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that at the time Ruby was arrested in London, Mr. Akrasi Sarpong who publicly advocated the legalization of marijuana, a narcotics drug, was said to be out of the country.

The controversial NACOB press statement was signed by his deputy, Richard Nii Lante Blankson.

SOLE-COMMISSIONER DEFENDS MARTIN AMIDU

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Firday November 21, 2014

The Judgement Debt Commission has reacted angrily to a publication in one of the pro-ruling NDC newspapers that the former Attorney General Martin A.B.K. Amidu lied to the commission.

According to the commission, the little-know newspaper ‘The True Spokesman’ in October ran series of publications trying to run the former AG who is noted for his relentless fight against official corruption especially in his own party and government.

At a news conference in Accra yesterday, Dometi Kofi Sorkpor, counsel for the commission condemned the publications with headlines “Martin Amidu’s gargantuan lies exposed (2)’ as well as “Martin Amidu goes into hiding after gargantuan lies were exposed.”

“The Commission has noted with great concern attempts by a section of the press to damage the reputation of the former Attorney-General & Minister of Justice Mr. Martin Amidu using this Commission as a conduit, albeit falsely.”

Counsel said the publications purported to portray that Mr. Amidu petitioned the commission with information “heavily loaded with falsities and blatant gargantuan lies.”

According to Mr. Sorkpor, “this Commission does not know how and where the paper gathered this false information,” adding “the commission wants to state emphatically that it was not Mr. Amidu who brought to the notice or attention of the commission the judgment entered in favour of Gbewaa Civil Engineering Co. & Yakubu Adam Kasule as a result of a purported 'Terms of Settlement' reached between Mr. Kasule and another former Attorney-General Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrisu.”

“The issue of the judgment entered in favour of Yakubu Kasule based on the said 'Terms of Settlement' was one of the Judgment Debt cases brought to the attention of the commission by the Attorney-General's Department when the commission requested for records on all Judgment Debts entered against the state from 1992 to date on the inception of the commission.”

Explaining further, Mr. Sorkpor said the commission noticed that both Mrs. lddrisu and Mr. Amidu as Attorneys-General had signed documents concerning the matter; including even some State Attorneys at the Attorney-General's Department and they needed to verify.

“In line with the Commissions mandate, the Commission invited the two former Attorney-General's and other State Attorney's who had something to do with the cases involving Gbewaa Civil Engineering & its Managing Director Adam Kasule to provide answers to some questionnaire sent to them.”

He said the Acting Solicitor-General was also invited to brief the commission on the matter adding “the fact that Mr. Amidu and Mrs. Mould Iddrisu were not invited to publicly face the cameras does not mean that the issue has been swept under the carpet.”

He also said that the fact that the Judgment entered in favour of Mr. Kasule & his company is that of a court of competent jurisdiction did not mean that it automatically fell outside the mandate of the commission.

“The commission is looking into all Judgment Debts and Akin Matters from 1992 to date. The Judgment in favour of Mr. Kasule is therefore one of such cases and this commission shall issue a report on it.”

He said it was not all the cases that witnesses were made to appear publicly before the Commission saying “where the documents before the commission were clear and unambiguous, the commission did not invite anybody to appear publicly to explain issues.”

This happened in several of the cases considered by this Commission including the Woyome case, which this Commission is going to report on.

Mr. Sorkpor advised the media to ensure that it did not use the commission as a 'conduit' to “advance the personal interests of anybody.”

"The True Spokesman should note that what it is doing constitutes contempt of this Commission. It should therefore bring to halt these false publications. On the other hand, if the paper has an agenda it wants to advance, it should not draw this commission into it to avoid the unpalatable.”