BATTLE OF SFO REPORTS

Ken Ofori Atta

By Ekow Mensah

Sources close to the very centre of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) say that a number of Serious Fraud Office (SFO) reports on corruption involving leading members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will be released this week.

The sources refused to state when the reports will be released but insisted that it will be retaliation for the publication of the SFO report on the Obotan scandal.

“We will see who will survive after we release all the reports we have collected” said one source.

Last week, a number of media houses published the SFO report alleging that a number of business persons and officials of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT ) conspired and took pension funds of US$2.2 million for a non- existent housing project.

 The report named Ken Ofori- Atta who is believed by NDC activists and leaders to be one of the main financiers of the NPP as part of the alleged conspiracy.

Interestingly, the SFO report also mentioned persons who are close to the NDC as being part of the alleged conspiracy.

They include a Mr Charles Asare, who was the Director- General of SSNIT at the time of the transaction.

From all indications, this week may see the battle of SFO reports.

The question is who will win?

Editorial

Foreign Travels Galore

In the first decade of the 21st century that is from 2001-2008, the number and frequency of foreign travels of the President of the Republic and other political leaders became a very hot topic for discussions.

Indeed the then opposition NDC used this issue like the ‘twapea’ chewing stick and it was a jewel in the propaganda campaign against the NPP and the Kufuor government. Indeed other than probably Russia, Kufour visited everywhere and anywhere probably to get away from the economic crisis and HIPIC crisis of the time and it is said to collect some ‘per diem’.

What do we see now, the other side of the same coin but with different set of players indulging in the same set of travels and junketing around the world with the same old tired excuses. They accept any invitation whether it inures to the national interest or not and pay uncountable official and state visits to just anywhere. Most times it is not only the President, but his Vice President as well.

They are of late out of the country at the same time, how the speaker wouldn’t be tired of repeating the same oaths and thus decide not to do it again. Whilst it is true the President acts on behalf of ECOWAS, his visits must be strategic and designed to bring in maximum results instead of going to Burkina Faso, then moving to Nigeria and quickly to the Vatican in the space of one and half weeks without pausing to resolve this problems of ’dumsor’ high cost of living, Pension fund furor, the crumbling infrastructure of the motorway and roads generally the National Service corruption scandal and the incessant strikes by public sectors workers.

Whilst  we need strong institutions we also need a firm helmsman who can steer the ship of state. We do not need a runaway president who at the hint of any crises or domestic trouble flies away to the Vatican or Bosnia or someplace. Indeed what benefit is the visit to the Vatican to us except to the nostalgic feelings of the catholic faithful. MR. President please stay at home, face the problems squarely and fix the national economy.

Newmont Engaged In Monumental Galamsey

Kwabena Donkor

Over ten mining companies in Ghana including Newmont have been accused of engaging in "monumental galamsey", making it difficult for the state to derive the appropriate benefits from their operations.

Dr. Kwabena Donkor, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Mines and Energy, described this as an “obvious affront to Ghanaians”.

Mr. Donkor was leading a discussion at a public-private sector dialogue on mining governance in Ghana organized by the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), in partnership with the Australian Government. The event is a public-private sector dialogue on mining governance and brings together government officials, civil society organisations, policy makers, and industry representatives for a one-day roundtable discussion on governance in the management of revenues from mineral exploitation in Ghana.

“As we speak, Newmont is engaged in the biggest galamsey in the history of this country in that they are mining without parliamentary ratification at Akyem. They are not prospecting, they are mining…right from the Minerals Commission and Ministry are guilty of the illegality as well as Newmont, the major culprit.

“If a Ghanaian, given 25 acres to mine moves beyond by one meter it is declared galamsey, galamsey is simply illegal. When you are multinational, listed on the stock exchange, and mining without parliamentary ratification, it is monumental galamsey in my books.”

“First of all it is at total disrespect for our sovereignty as a people, secondly, it can lead to revenue leakages because the essence of parliamentary ratification is for parliament to determine whether the terms inure to the interest of Ghana,” he told Myjoyonline.com.

“If the big boys are breaking the law in the same industry, [then what the mining companies are doing ] is galamsey on a commercial scale,” he asserted.

However, the mining companies cannot entirely be blamed for breaking the law, the state itself should be held responsible, he said.

Currently there is a contradiction between the Constitution of Ghana and the Minerals and Mining Act 703, 2006, he explained.

Article 268 (1) of the 1992 Constitution states: “Any transaction, contract or undertaking involving the grant of a right or concession by or on behalf of any person including the Government of Ghana, to any other person or body of persons howsoever described, for the exploitation of any mineral, water or other natural resource of Ghana made or entered into after the coming into force of this Constitution shall be subject to ratification by Parliament.”

This, he emphasized, has been contradicted by the Minerals and Mining Act, which is subservient to the Constitution, and yet gives powers to the sector minister to usurp parliamentary powers.

“Ghanaian officialdom have let the state Ghana down,” he stressed.

In his observation, politicians have not done enough to guard Ghana’s natural resources and he has therefore charged Ghanaians not to leave the destiny of this country to politicians alone, irrespective of the party in power.

Saharawi political prisoners

Saharawi Political Prisoners

The 21 Saharawi political prisoners that are still imprisoned on the back of the Gdeim Izik mass protest camp, have today appealed to the church communities in Texas to denounce Kosmos Energy's plans in occupied Western Sahara. Read their full letter here.

Dear Sir, Madam,
We are Saharawi prisoners of conscience from the occupied territory of Western Sahara. We would like to appeal to your Christian faith and ask for your support in convincing Dallas-based oil company Kosmos Energy to do what is right. The future of our people is at stake.
We wish to thank you for taking the time to read this letter. The connection between our situation and your community may not be self-evident, but it is strong and tangible. As it happens, some members of your community are in a position to significantly influence our people’s fate. The Dallas-based oil firm Kosmos Energy is at the brink of commencing oil exploration offshore our occupied land, and in doing so, could dramatically impact on our future.

In 1975, Morocco invaded and subsequently annexed large parts of our country, in blatant disrespect for international law and a raft of UN Resolutions. Ever since, we have been enduring the dire consequences of occupation. Hundreds of Saharawis have perished in Moroccan jails or have disappeared. Many fled the napalm bombardments, and found shelter in one of the most inhospitable parts of the Algerian desert. Today still, more than 160.000 of our relatives live in these refugee camps, surviving on decreasing international aid and suffering malnutrition and poor living conditions. They have now spent 40 years in the desert, waiting for the international community to react.
Those that stayed behind are now forced to face oppression and gross human rights violations perpetrated by the Moroccan state. We are not allowed to organise, to express our culture or to vocalise our political views – it will only result in inhumane treatment; kidnapping, beatings, rape, torture, arbitrary detention, unfair trials resulting in unfounded prison sentences, etc. Today, we live as a marginalised minority in our own country. Social and economic discrimination favouring a now majority of Moroccan settlers has relegated us to the fringes of society in our own land under occupation.
In the meantime, Morocco has proceeded to sell of our country’s natural resources as if they were its own. However, it has no right to do so. We, the Saharawi people, have a right to self-determination, as stated by the International Court of Justice, repeated over and over by the United Nations and recognised by the entire international community. We have the right to choose the political future of our country, and of the resources it harbours.
Accordingly, we have protested, time and again, against the ongoing illegal and immoral looting of our land. While Morocco’s treasury fills its coffers, our people are starving in refugee camps or subjected to inhumane treatment for demanding our rights. That is a grave injustice.
Through the years, we have also protested against Kosmos Energy’s presence and plans in our territorial waters. The company’s decision to team up with the Moroccan government for drilling in occupied waters may permanently destroy our future: it will give the Moroccan government even more incentive to stop us from exercising our right to self-determination. The drilling starts this December.
In the fall of 2010, thousands of Saharawis pitched their tents in the desert to protest the plunder of our resources, starkly contrasting our social and economic discrimination. This protest camp, known as Gdeim Izik, was burned to the ground by the Moroccan army and hundreds of Saharawis were arrested. Most spent months in prison, though there were never any charges against them. However a group of 25 men – many of them known human rights activists - was held in prison for years, before being tried in connection to the protest camp. During the trials, they referred to Morocco’s plunder of our resources, with the aid of foreign companies such as Kosmos Energy. But in a mockery of justice, more than 20 of those men were condemned to sentences ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment in connection to the protest camp. We are those men.
We ask for your support. Kosmos Energy has a unique chance to create peace; by refraining from drilling until the voice of the Saharawi people has been heard. But if the company decides to go ahead, without respect for our rights, it will only aggravate an already horrific situation. We, who have suffered the Moroccan repression for decades, are afraid that the future human rights situation will be even more intense should oil be found.
Jesus Christ, who is also a prophet for us, once said, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me." Jesus also said, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me."
We, the Saharawi prisoners of conscience from occupied Western Sahara known as the Gdeim Izik group, are hoping that Kosmos Energy and the Christian community in Texas, will not forget these words.
Please, we ask you, make contact with Kosmos Energy (www.kosmosenergy.com) – so far the company refuses to listen to our appeal. Please ask them to stay away from our country. Contact your local politicians, senators, journalists, ask them to intervene and uncover the injustice.  

Keep us in your prayers as we keep you in ours.

Signed,

The Gdeim Izik prisoners
Salé prison
Rabat, Morocco

Elakhfaouni Abdalahi
Boutamguiza Mohamed El Bachir
Ahmed Sbai
Laaroussi Abdeljalil
Brahim Ismaili
Mohamed Bani
Sid Ahmed Lamjaid
Sidi Abdallah Abhah
Mohamed Lamine Haddi
Asfari Ennaama
Mohamed Bouryal
Hassan Dah
Cheikh Banga
Mohamed Embark Lefkir
Deich Eddaf
Elhoussin Ezzaoui
Abdalahi Taoubali
Mohamed Tahlil
El Bachir Khadda
Babait Mohamed Khona
Laarabi Bakay

What have all these street demonstrations achieved for the NPP?

Paul Afoko, NPP National Chairman

By Dr. Michael J.K. Bokor

I have been assessing issues regarding all the demonstrations by pro-NPP organizations and others against the Mahama-led administration all these years. Despite these demonstrations, nothing shows that the government has bowed to the pressure being mounted on it to do things differently. Those organizing the street demonstrations have relented and are going about things as if they have no other means to effect any change than such actions. And a critical assessment of the forces behind such demonstrations reveals that it is the NPP that is stage-managing and teleguiding it all. Why are these Mahama loathers so daft? Can they not choose better means to influence the electorate and help us grow our democracy?

Let me be very blunt to say that the systemic problems militating against Ghana’s development are not being solved because of many factors, particularly those based on the negative Ghanaian mentality and attitudes. You already know what the “pull-Him/Her-Down” syndrome entails. Beyond that is the pervasive tendency of dissembling—those openly criticizing corruption hiding behind smokescreens to perpetrate that very act. Corruption is everywhere and cannot be eradicated because it is the “in-thing”.

Our politicians are enmeshed in it; our traditional leaders benefit from it (otherwise, why should there be chieftaincy and land disputes all over the place?); our public officials cannot survive without it; and those in private business cannot escape it because their private businesses intersect with public office holders who milk the system dry. No private entrepreneur can succeed without the support of the public sector, which is why collusion becomes attractive to deepen corruption.

Our country is still on its knees, not because those claiming to be its redeemers haven’t had the chance to rule but because both the redeemers and the “destroyers” are united with a common agenda to fleece the system. We have had many governments over the years, none of which can be distinguished from the other and given credit for doing anything spectacular to make any difference.  

In this 4th Republic, we have had both the NDC and NPP rule the country with nothing to draw any line between them except that the NDC has had a longer tenure. How Rawlings ruled Ghana is known. What Kufuor did couldn’t reduce the Rawlings phenomenon to absurdity, which explains why the electorate twice rejected the NPP  and its Akufo-Addo at Elections 2008 and 2012 and will continue to do so for as long as they don’t see anything drastically different coming from him and his cabal.

Within this context, then, it is clear that all the agitations being spearheaded by the NPP against the Mahama-led administration won’t register anything commendable. We have been bugged by street demonstrations of all kinds ever since it became clear that the NPP couldn’t prevail over the electorate to be put in power, Cast your mind back to all that happened when they lost Election 2008, which would be repeated when their sad fate was confirmed by the outcome of Election 2012.

They have refused to face reality and are expending energy and resources trying to force a river to flow upstream. That is why they have formed all kinds of associations and mushroom groupings with the sole aim of raising dust to destabilize the system. They have also chosen to infiltrate all identifiable civil society groupings to sow their see of discord therein just because they are not in power and want to use every satanic means to make the country ungovernable.

We saw what they did when they lost Election 2012, forming the “Let My Vote Count Alliance” to foment trouble. Then they shifted gear and passed the baton on to others such as Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG). There are many others that are not worth my bother because they cannot do anything to change the situation. It’s just like a duck picking a bone in the presence of a dog. Why should the dog fret, knowing very well that all that the duck can do is to lick that bone and leave it for the dog to claim?

President Mahama was legitimately elected to rule Ghana and is doing so. No amount of intimidation, foul play in the political game, or empty threats will change the equation to favour his opponents. If they were wise, they would choose better weapons than street demonstrations to undermine him.

Here, then, comes my beef: What have all these Mahama loathers achieved so far through their street demonstrations and political waywardness? Nothing!!

Their inability to see things from a wider angle so they can refine their political machinery portrays them as desperate power seekers who will chafe, huff and puff for nothing. That is why I find it difficult to rationalize their persistent recourse to street demonstrations. The latest in their arid schemes is the street demonstration to be held by AFAG, which the police administration has authorized to be held tomorrow, November 12, under the theme "Aagbe Wor" (A Ga expression, meaning “They are killing us”).

This is a throw-back to the useless demonstrations held by Akufo-Addo and his Alliance for Change in the 1990sw against Jerry Rawlings and his PNDC. Nothing fruitful resulted from such open displays of notoriety. Innocent lives of young Hogar and others were lost, which Akufo-Addo would unconscionably turn round to exploit as an act of his human rights activism. Yet, when 44 innocent Ghanaians were murdered by the beastly Yahaya Jameh regime in Gambia at the time that he was a high-ranking government official, he couldn’t do anything to seek justice for the victims and their relatives.

Such a character is behind all the useless agitations going on. That is why he hasn’t been appealing to the voters and won’t. Can he not learn any useful lesson to use better means to reach out to the electorate? Why is he fixated on violent means to achieve his childhood ambition of becoming Ghana’s President “at all costs”?

Folks, having monitored all the agitations against anything NDC in this 4th Republic, I can confidently say that what the NPP and its lackeys have chosen as their trump-card for seeking political power is laughable. These people are not politically sensitive or mature. They are constantly giving signals that they don’t know how to do politics to be relevant to the Ghanaian cause.

I want to say at this point that their penchant for militancy will end up having the boomerang effect that will send them back to the political wilderness for a longer period than the 30 years that doomed them until Kufuor won political power in the 2000 run-off. The fact that the NPP couldn’t go it alone at that time should even have alerted them to their moribund stage. Need I say more?

I want to conclude that all these demonstrations by the anti-Mahama elements haven’t changed the situation. The government has dug in and not budged to their waywardness. They haven’t in any way succeeded in changing the situation to their advantage despite all the heavy investments that they have made thereof. Until the government bows to their pressure, there is nothing to make me think that such open displays of rogue politics are worth anybody’s bother.

Thanks to comments from Dan Botwe, MP for Okere, and the childishness of Gabby Otchere Darko, Dominic Ntiwul, and many others spearheading the NPP’s political mischief, we know what their intricate network of anti-Ghana agenda is. They think they can destabilize the country to put themselves in power, forgetting that removing them from power is far easier than it will be for an NDC government. If they want to test it, let them try it!!

In truth, this 4th Republic is the brainchild of the NDC and will remain so. If the NPP people think otherwise, let them not go far. They should just find out why it is difficult for their loud-mouthed, empty braggarts who condemn everything about the 1992 Constitution and the parameters of the 4th Republic but cannot initiate any move to change the Constitution or to get Parliament to amend the Transitional Provisions. Cowards!!!

AFAG Demonstrators hit the roads

I history serves me right, let me say that the 1969 Constitution was tactically or strategically masterminded by the anti-Nkrumah elements to serve their purposes; but they didn’t last in power because of the undeniable fact that they were (and still are) objectionable. They are an anathema to the true Ghanaian spirit. If you doubt it, just do some research on what they did to oppose everything progressive that the Great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah conceived and initiated. Had they had their own way, Ghana would have been more under-developed than it has been all these years. These are despicable characters not to be entertained anywhere. They are the gem destroying the Ghanaian nutrient!! So much for them for now. I shall revisit this aspect soon.

Let the AFAGs, Franklin Cudjoe and his IMANI-Ghana, other so-called civil society groupings, lackeys in the mass media, drooling and frustrated public servants, the unconscionable leaders of organized labour, and many others who think that they are not making it because President Mahama and his government have closed the doors to them go about politics the way they deem fit. In the end, they will remain where they are and chafe all the more.

If these self-righteous people were politically savvy, they would use better means to reach out to the electorate. Street demonstrations are the basest and won’t help them. Oh, how I wish they would use better means to remove the NDC from power. Ghana deserves better than these political maladroits!!

Kosmos Energy to drill in occupied Western Sahara 

A group of Saharawi political prisoners, some serving lifetime, has launched an appeal to the church communities of Texas to denounce Kosmos Energy's plans to drill in their occupied homeland, Western Sahara.

Dallas-based Kosmos Energy has struck a deal with the Moroccan government to begin test-well drilling in the waters adjacent to Western Sahara before the end of 2014.

Morocco invaded Western Sahara in 1975, and today exerts military control over three quarters of the territory. The United Nations consider Western Sahara to be a Non-Self Governing Territory; a colony. The International Court of Justice stated that Morocco has no legal ties to the territory, and no State in the world recognises Morocco's untenable claims over the land. A UN Legal Opinion of 2002 calls any exploration or exploitation of Western Sahara's resources in violation of international law if not undertaken in accordance with the wishes and the interests of the people of the territory - the Saharawi people.

The Saharawi people, who have an internationally recognised right to self-determination, have repeatedly called on Kosmos Energy to refrain from drilling in their occupied waters. Their concern is that the industrial and economic activity to result from oil production will only entrench an illegal and violent occupation, thereby hindering an already tense UN-led peace process.

The latest protest in line comes from a group of Saharawi political prisoners, all imprisoned on the back of the so-called Gdeim Izik mass protest, directed against Morocco's marginalisation of Saharawis in their own land while continuing to plunder their resources. 

"Kosmos Energy has a unique chance to create peace; by refraining from drilling until the voice of the Saharawi people has been heard. But if the company decides to go ahead, without respect for our rights, it will only aggravate an already horrific situation", the prisoners write in their letter.

In absence of a single shred of evidence against them, apart from confessions extracted under torture, the signatories of the letter, all civilians, were condemned to severely harsh sentences - ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment - by a Moroccan military tribunal on 17 February 2013 on charges relating to violent resistance against Moroccan military forces who on 8 November 2010 violently dismantled the Gdeim Izik protest camp set up by Saharawis a month earlier at a desert site just outside of Western Sahara's capital city El Aaiun. 

International organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch stated that the trial did not meet internationally recognised standards for a fair trial and call for their release.