Alert! Unusual gunshots
GJA, PRINPAG welcome exit of Criminal Law
What Prof. Mills said at Winneba
¢3.5bn released to repair bungalows …Busia’s home included
Tears for a departed hero
2 Cops foil armed robbery attempt
Two Ghanaian players fall victim to soccer racketeers
The Press is ignoring NPP’s sins - Tony Aidoo
VAT printer owes ¢5bn VAT
Passport Office cautions
CHRAJ looks for Ohene Agyekum
Apaloo saves policeman from prison life
Kufuor at historic Damba festival…“Ignore advocates of intolerance”
NPP suppresses document
Bribing Political Parties
Min of Finance shelved Bank of Ghana Report
¢492.5m Fraud
‘Repeal Land Dev. Act’
Reduce Mallam Isa’s sentence
Coco Palm's ¢10bn Tax evasion
Alert! Unusual gunshots
The Independent carries that even though Oblogo, a suburb of Accra may not be considered in the top bracket of the plush residential areas of the capital, no one would however ignore the notoriety belying its unsung status.
Investigations by the paper have revealed the firing of unusual gunshots in the area for the past year and residents say they have lived with the terror with no sign of official intervention despite persistent appeals to the authorities concerned. A number of residents who cannot cope with the experience have changed their abode.
“It’s simply a nightmarish experience living here”, a resident who claims to have lived in the suburb since 1962 had explained when the paper visited there on Monday and her submission was corroborated by a number of residents who spoke under strict anonymity.
“There were so many gunshots on Monday night that I abandoned going to visit the urinal at about 2 am”, one middle aged woman reportedly stated.
The mode of operation of the thugs, according to her was that “They will first put off the only light that illuminates the street, barricade the market place and start shooting indiscriminately”.
It was gathered that the unusual firing emanate from a protracted chieftaincy dispute that has stalled all activities in the village.
One of the factions, many people opined, had forced its way into the Oblogo throne and forced the original chief and the legal custodian of the Oblogo stool to abdicate.
According to a resident, that faction which currently acts as the custodian of the Oblogo land had hired thugs, mostly in their teens, to safeguard their interest.
The nightly gunshots, according to the paper’s search, were a ploy to ward off any member of the other faction from sneaking into the village.
Many residents who spoke to the paper confirmed that the youth of the terrorising faction keep vigil at a barricade they mount at the village centre around 12 mid-night and scrutinise every car that enters the village.
“In the process of their operation they disturb our sleep with the gunshots which has become a norm for the past two years after the former custodian of the Oblogo stool had been forced to flee”, revealed another woman who had lived in the area for more than a decade.
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GJA, PRINPAG welcome exit of Criminal Law
The Presidents of two Ghanaian media organisations, Mrs Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie and Nana Kofi Coomson, have welcomed last Friday’s unanimous vote by Ghana’s Parliament for a repeal of the Criminal Libel Law now awaiting Presidential assent.
Speaking to the Independent on Monday, Gifty, heading the Ghana Journalists Association, said the vote was a step in the right direction and “was what the GJA has been fighting for all these years”.
She described the repeal as victory for freedom of expression for all Ghanaians since it will broaden the frontiers of free speech and stressed that the existence of the law was not just bad for the media but society as a whole.
Mrs Afenyi-Dadzie who led a GJA delegation to present a memorandum to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee of Parliament, said repealing criminal libel was consistent with Chapter 12 of the 1992 Constitution.
She dismissed as untenable fears being expressed in certain circles that a vacuum will be created with the repeal of the law, citing the National Media Commission, the Ethics of the GJA and the courts under the Civil Libel Laws as avenues for those who believe they have been injured by the media to seek redress.
Whiles welcoming the repeal of the law, Mrs Afenyi-Dadzie expressed the hope that journalists will be more sensitive to their professional ethics to a point where even the resort to civil libel and the courts will be redundant.
In his view, Nana Kofi Coomson, President of the Private Newspaper Publishers of Ghana (PRINPAG), welcomed the repeal of the law and argued that every Ghanaian was in danger of Criminal and Seditious Libel, a second degree felony punishable by at least 10 years jail term.
He said the NPP government should be applauded for its historic act.
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What Prof. Mills said at Winneba
Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has refuted a front page story in last Tuesday’s issue of The Independent headlined, “NDC IS A DIVIDED HOUSE” – Atta-Mills.
In a statement issued by Spio-Garbrah and monitored on Choice FM, the chairman of the media committee of the NDC said the former NDC Presidential candidate never talked about the NDC being a divided house and only stressed on the need for unity.
Another rejoinder presented to the paper by Mr Allotey Jacobs, who described himself as a member of Prof Mills’ team to the Winneba meeting, said the headline of the report did not convey the exact import of the statement by the former Vice-President.
Jacobs in his rejoinder said what Prof Mills said was that “too much bickering from the top hierarchy of the NDC party to the grass roots will never augur well for the party if we should take over the reigns of government in 2004.”
Mr Jacobs said that he thinks The Independent’s reporter might have misconstrued all these aspects of the former Vice-President’s speech because he spoke in Fante, his local dialect.
But the paper maintains that its Swedru born and bred reporter understood the Fante language very well and had “sat through the Winneba meeting which could be described as a frank and give and clinical look at the NDC yesterday and today and took notes of what he heard Prof Mills say at the Winneba meeting”.
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¢3.5bn released to repair bungalows …Busia’s home included
A total of ¢3.5 billion has been made available to the Ministry of Works and Housing for the execution of a number of projects, including the renovation and rehabilitation of the Odorkor residence of Dr K.A. Busia, Prime Minister of the Second Republic, according to The Ghanaian Times.
Mr Kwamena Bartels, Minister of Works and Housing, disclosed this to the Times in Accra, saying the projects should be completed by September, with works already started.
Mr Bartels mentioned the renovation and furnishing of 50 government bungalows, construction of offices for private sector development business, Castle Renovation Phase Two, rehabilitation and refurbishment of the Speaker’s residence as well as renovation and refurbishment of the Vice-President’s residence and Guest House.
The exercise, to be carried out by the Ministry through the Greater Accra Regional Engineer (Prestige Unit of the Public Works Department), would also involve the rehabilitation of the Flag Staff House.
According to Mr Bartels, the Ministry had so far disbursed about 40 per cent of the ¢3.5 billion to some of the contract’s works.
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Tears for a departed hero
It was a pathetic scene at a public forum on National Reconciliation at Bolgatanga when the wife of a soldier killed in action during the 31st December Revolution broke down and wept openly, says the Times.
Madam Rahinatu Yakubu, wife of late Corporal Yakubu Osmanu, was making a presentation at the forum, but midway, she could not control her emotions and wept profusely for the hardship that she had to go through all these years. She solely looks after three children and her husband who played a key role in the June 4 Uprising was not compensated as promised by the PNDC regime.
“Despite numerous correspondence with the past regime, we were left to fend for ourselves”, she said.
Madam Yakubu however, commended the NPP government for making efforts at reconciling the country since it is an essential ingredient in moving the nation forward.
The forum was organised at the Legal Resource Centre and sponsored by the USAID and was attended by people from all walks of life.
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2 Cops foil armed robbery attempt
A plan by a five-member gang of armed robbers to operate in the Ejisu area last Wednesday was aborted by two policemen stationed at Effiduase in the Ashanti Region.
The cops, Constables Stephen Abanga and Adu Agyemang, chased and engaged the robbers in a fierce exchange of gunfire at Asotwe, near Ejisu where they sent them (robbers) fleeing.
Briefing the ‘Times’ on Monday, police sources said the robbers arrived at a barrier on Effiduase-Juabeng road on board an unregistered green LT VW bus at about 3.30 am.
Suspecting that the occupants of the bus might be armed robbers going to operate in the Ejisu area, the two policemen commandeered a vehicle and pursued them.
Having succeeded in overtaking their bus at Juaben, the policemen drove to Asotwe where they hurriedly mounted a roadblock to track down the suspects.
The robbers on arrival at the roadblock opened fire on sighting the policemen but the cops returned the gunshots and in the process, two of the robbers who were believed to have been hurt alighted and disappeared into the bush.
The firepower of the cops proved too superior leaving the other robbers with no other alternative than to abandon the battle and flee by quickly reversing their bus and speeding towards Kumasi using the Bonwire route.
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The Chronicle says WAHOME Steel Ltd, a steel company in which the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) sensationally pumped over ¢50 billion in 1993 and took over its management, has ceased production for the past three months, due to accrued debts of over ¢214 billion.
Pressure is also said to be mounting on SSNIT, the majority shareholder to either inject a minimum of ¢14 billion to save the company from being liquidated, or lose their investment.
Following an Accra High Court ruling against WAHOME, suppliers of raw materials to the company through the Registrar General’s Department began the liquidation of the company’s assets but SSNIT stepped in and asked for a three month grace period ending July 31st, 2001 to put things in order.
Workers of the company are also in the third month without salaries although management asked most of them to proceed on leave with pay because there was no work to be done. About 400 workers stand the risk of being redundant.
The paper gathered that two weeks ago, the Trust’s new director, Mr Kwesi Osei tasked its Investment Department headed by one Mr Asiedu Gyamfi to look into the issue and submit a report to him by Wednesday, August 1, 2001.
Before Mr Osei’s appointment, WAHOME had appealed to then acting Director General of SSNIT, Mr Eric Adjei to pump in more funds to resuscitate the company, but a decision could not be taken because Adjei was in an acting capacity and required the Trust’s board approval.
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Two Ghanaian players fall victim to soccer racketeers
Two young Ghanaian footballers, who were lured to Europe by notorious Italian player agent Domenico Ricchi almost four years ago to pursue professional careers, are virtually scraping out a living in the Italian town of Udine, with the agent nowhere to be found.
The two, Issa Rahman and Akwasi Okyere, both 20 and former junior national team internationals were sold for $20,000 each to top Italian Serie A club, Udinese in 1997 and 1999 respectively but have been abandoned to their fate.
Caught between a spiral of total neglect by officials of Udinese on one side and the renege of responsibility by Ricchi who has gone ‘awol’ on them, the lads are forced to rely on handouts from club President, Pierre Puzzo to survive.
The paper further learnt that their monthly salaries of $3000 each have not been paid for some time and attempts to get the club to pronounce on their status have proved futile. They would also not volunteer information on the current arrangements holding the boys.
Ricchi who has been blacklisted by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is believed to have left his native Italy for Luxembourg where he is currently based.
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The Press is ignoring NPP’s sins - Tony Aidoo
The former Deputy Minister of Defence and Director of Research of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Tony Aidoo says the private press has conveniently ignored the mistakes of the NPP government but continues to attack the NDC even though it’s in opposition.
According to the ‘hatchet man’ of the NDC, there are so many things the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is doing that demands critical media attention but which have been ignored.
“Of course if you helped the NPP come to power, you must be obliged to help it to consolidate its power. All the things that the media did for the NPP, there must be a reward,” Aidoo said during a current affairs programme on Radio Gold, an Accra FM station last Saturday.
According to him, there was no way the NPP could have beaten the NDC if not for the powerful propaganda that was waged on behalf of the party by the Private Press.
But Mr Kweku Baako, Editor of the Crusading Guide calling into the programme denied Dr Aidoo’s assertions, stating that it is too early for the media to subject the NPP to criticism.
“Let me start from a certain intriguing angle. It is the same media and here we are not talking about the Mallam Isa issue. It is the same media that brought up the issue involving the Central Regional Minister. You can see what is happening. It shows that the media is playing its role in terms of enhancing probity, accountability and of course good governance”, Baako said.
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VAT printer owes ¢5bn VAT
Controversial businessman and top-notch NDC financier, Joe Boateng is in trouble over the evasion of ¢4.8 billion VAT by his company, Checkpoint, reports The Statesman.
Boateng who is currently knocking on the doors of the ruling NPP and painfully muscling his way into eminence, has paid only ¢106 million out of ¢5 billion he was expected to pay last year.
His clear abdication of tax obligation is most ironic in view of the fact that he was the biggest beneficiary of the NDC practice of sole sourcing, earning about ¢60 billion worth of contracts out of the ¢70 billion given away for last year alone. Prominent among the contracts, he enjoyed a clear monopoly over VAT forms, which he was at one point printing for ¢15,000 a copy even though the state sold it out at ¢5,000.
The mind-boggling aspect of Checkpoint’s monopoly was that there were about four other companies that possessed the machinery and ability to execute all the works that the company undertook.
The companies, IKAM, Buck Press, Safeway Printing Press and Fonstat were mostly denied the contracts on account of their perceived NPP inclinations, leaving Checkpoint to do the printing at atrociously high prices.
Apart from the VAT books it printed for ¢15,000 for sale at ¢5,000, it printed Goods Declaration Forms at ¢100,000 each.
With the NPP’s new regime of competition and equal opportunities, however, the printing of the Goods Declaration Forms was put on tender and among the companies, that took part in the bidding was Checkpont, which then scaled its price down to ¢70,000.
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Passport Office cautions
The Passport Office has cautioned the general public to channel their passport applications through the normal process, as this would ensure they are processed expeditiously.
It cautioned applicants of the activities of so-called ‘passport agents’ who promise to procure passports for them in the shortest possible time but end up defrauding them.
The call was made when the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang and his Deputy, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris paid a surprise visit to the Passport Office to a acquaint themselves with problems at the office in order to find lasting solutions to them.
Officials informed the Ministers that the Passport Office was currently processing applications submitted within June and July including a number of cases submitted in May.
The ministers expressed their determination to assist the office process applications and issue passports within the stipulated four-week period and possibly reduce it to two weeks.
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CHRAJ looks for Ohene Agyekum
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is making frantic efforts to locate and serve a writ on former Ashanti Regional Minister and Presidential Staffer, Daniel Ohene Agyekum, for alleged assault.
A Kumasi based trader, Yaw Brefo has dragged Agyekum, together with Nana Akwasi Agyemang, the former Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly before CHRAJ for allegedly assaulting him in April 1998.
The search for Agyekum has become necessary because nobody seems to know his whereabouts since the NDC lost the 2000 elections.
The Statesman’s investigations have revealed that the victim, Yaw Brefo has renewed his pursuit of the case following the ouster of the NDC government from power.
At the time of the incident, the Kumasi Police refused to admit a complaint lodged with them by Brefo, let alone invite the two officials for questioning.
Left with not option, the victim headed for the CHRAJ where the Commissioner, Emile Short, sat on portions of the case but Brefo’s counsel had to be replaced along the line due to other commitments, leading to a lull in the case. Quite recently another lawyer, Joe Osei, took over the case.
It then became necessary to inform the respondents that the CHRAJ was to reopen the case but all attempts to locate Ohene Agyekum have yielded no results.
GRi…/
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Apaloo saves policeman from prison life
The Daily Guide carries that an Accra High Court presided over by Justice R.K. Apaloo on Monday July 30, 2001 showed utmost leniency in sentencing a Police Constable, Jonas Fellah Pascal to two years imprisonment in hard labour, instead of life imprisonment, the mandatory service.
Mr Fellah Pascal was charged with manslaughter, which could have attracted the maximum sentence of life imprisonment according to the criminal code of Ghana.
In slapping the two year jail sentence on the accused person, Justice Apaloo stated that judging from the spate of armed robberies and commission of other crimes in the country, he does not want to throw innocent police officers who are combating these crimes into prison.
“I am particularly not interested in sending a wrong signal to demotivate the police in fighting crimes in the country”, he said.
Commenting further on the two-year jail sentence on the accused person, Justice Apaloo added that if his (Mr Fellah Pascal’s) counsel, Mr Terence Nartey files an application for bail on behalf of his client to the court by July 31, the Police Constable will be considered for bail.
The members of the jury last Thursday July 26, 2001 at the court sitting returned a verdict of guilty of 5 against 2, which according to the court meant that Mr Fellah Pascal was to be sentenced to life imprisonment.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you must know that you are dealing with human lives. You must therefore take your work seriously”, he said.
The paper says it can authoritatively say that the expression of utmost leniency shown to the police officer by the courts was as a result of a private legal practitioner, Mr Dan Afari Yeboah, who had made meaningful submissions to the court on behalf of the Police Constable.
Earlier evidence given before the High Court had indicated that Constable Fellah Pascal, who was on official duty at a commercial Bank at Adabraka, a suburb of Accra accidentally killed a suspected armed robber when he opened fire on a speeding vehicle with the robbers believably on board.
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Kufuor at historic Damba festival…“Ignore advocates of intolerance”
President J.A. Kufuor according to The Accra Mail on Sunday joined this year’s Damba festival organised by the Islamic and Northern Ghanaian communities in Accra, where he asked Ghanaians to ignore those who cannot be tolerant of others.
Mr Kufuor, the guest of honour, solicited the patience and tolerance of Ghanaians to enable the government to achieve its set objectives.
The seriousness of his plea was underscored when he sought the intervention of the National Chief Imam and other imams to pray to God to make it possible for the government to fulfill its promised programmes within the mandated 4-year span of his administration. He said at the end of the term Ghanaians could choose to either retain it or ask “any of the sister parties to take over the reigns of government.”
“This was diplomatic oration at its best and the ovation he received was understandable”, writes the Mail.
The colourful festival chalked a first in bringing together an assemblage of not only Dagombas and other ethnic groups in the diverse communities hosting guests from as far afield as Yendi, Kumasi and Koforidua.
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NPP suppresses document
The Ghana Palaver says contrary to the impression created by the ruling NPP Government that poverty levels rose during the period of the NDC administration an IMF/World Bank Report has categorically asserted that poverty levels actually dropped sharply during the NDC era.
The report titled, "Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative - Preliminary Document", dated June 12, 2001 and prepared by staffs of the IMF and the World Bank for June, 2001 negotiations between the NPP Government and the Bretton-Woods Institutions, asserted that "Ghana's poverty trends were favourable in the 1990's. The percentage of the population defined as poor fell from 52 per cent in 1991-92 to just under 40 per cent in 1998-9"
Quoting from the Ghana Living Standards Survey, Report of the Fourth Round, October 2000, and the Ghana Statistical Service, the Report concludes that "such an improvement was made possible by sustained GDP growth at an average rate of 4.3 per cent per year during the 1992-99 period, accompanied by a broad improvement in social indicators.
It said Ghana’s reform effort since 1984 have delivered steady growth averaging 4.5 per cent annually through 2000 compared with a sub-saharan annual average of 2.9 per cent over the same period.
Moreover, the significant progress over the 1990’s demonstrate the rewards of civil order, progressive structural reform and political openness against a backdrop of increasing poverty both population shares and absolute numbers elsewhere in the region.
Economic analysts have concluded that it is this vindication of the PNDC, NDC economic policies, management style and practices that have compelled the NPP Government to suppress the Report.
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Bribing Political Parties
The Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Mogtari Sahanu has said that bribery of government officials and the ambiguous question of financial contribution to political parties by business executives must cease forthwith, since these have no place under a government of "Zero tolerance for corruption." The Evening News reports.
He regretted that what constitutes corruption in Ghana today is inexhaustible and remarked: "there is the misuse of state or company assets for political favours; kickbacks and protection money for the police and even the courts; payola for disc jockeys; free junkets for Members of Parliament, party functionaries and Journalists.
"Insider dealings of various kinds including the use of old-boys networks, cronyism and family connection", should be discouraged", he added.
Mr Sahanun said these when he opened the 43rd Annual Regional Conference of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission here.
He noted that the majority of Ghanaians were engaged in one way or the other in facilitating corruption and called for a new sense of direction so that the NPP government can meet its desired objective of ensuring a positive change for Ghanaians.
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Min of Finance shelved Bank of Ghana Report
It has been established that even though the Bank of Ghana produced a report on Ghana's external payment awaiting settlement, the Ministry of Finance failed to disclose this to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
This has resulted in the IMF asking Ghana to repay SDR 26.75 million it granted her plus the accrued interest by December 31, 2001 with the repayment to be effected in two installments by July 15 and December 31, 2001.
The penalty was contained in a report from the IMF Managing Director to members of the Executive Board on Ghana's Non-complying Disbursements and Recommendations for sanction, dated June 13,2001.
According to the IMF, the Bank of Ghana, in response to a request from the Ministry of Finance around August 25, 2000 provided a report on the country's external payments awaiting settlement which clearly showed the existence of arrears as of August 21, 2000.
The staff (IMF) was not informed of the existence of such a report until February 2001, the IMF stated.
The revelation according to the paper, sharply contradicts a statement made in Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo last week Thursday that "the Ministry and the Bank of Ghana provided incorrect information on the economy that led to the imposition of $39 million penalty by Ghana.
Giving background to Ghana being asked to repay the SDR 26.75 million, the IMF boss said at the September 2000 meeting, the Paris Club, more creditors noted that Ghana had external payment arrears.
When staff of the IMF contacted the Ghanaian authorities (former government), they said they knew of no arrears and asked that the staff follow up with Paris Club creditors, as these creditors may have been reporting on out-of-date information, given that some arrears were cleared shortly before the August 2000 Board meeting.
The IMF team that came to Ghana concluded among others that established systems and procedures were used to process external debt payments of Ghana throughout 2000 and that despite these systems external obligations of between US $31 million and US $38 million were not paid as of August 21, 2000. Thus there were indeed external arrears at the time of the Executive Board meeting.
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¢492.5m Fraud
Five officials at the Payroll Processing Division (PPD) of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, have been implicated in the ¢492.5 million fraud at the Sekyere West District Assembly, state paper the Daily Graphic reports.
The money represents payment to suspected 59 “ghost”.
The affected officials are believed to have forged the signatures of the Director of PPD, Mr Kwasi Owusu, and his assistant, Ms Ruth Abban, on all the cheques for the payment of salaries of the 59 ‘ghost names” and stamped the cheques before sending them to the outstation.
Since the two persons are the signatories to all such cheques, in forging their signatures and stamping the cheques, it would be deemed that the correct procedure had been followed.
The five persons, whose names are being withheld, are all in the machine room, where the programming and processing of cheques, among others, are done.
The Public Relations Officer of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, Nii Akwei Moffat, told the Graphic that a committee has been set up at the headquarters to investigate the issue.
He explained that the investigation at the head office has become necessary since all documents supporting the payment of salaries are processed in Accra before they are sent to the outstations.
“The outstations cannot do anything without having a link here (Accra),” he stressed.
Following the detection of the alleged fraud to siphon ¢492.5 million from the Consolidated Fund through the use of “ghost names”, an embargo has been placed on the July salaries of workers of the Sekyere West District Assembly.
Nii Moffat, however, said while the investigations continue, arrangements are being made to pay the salaries of genuine workers by Friday, August 3.
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‘Repeal Land Dev. Act’
The Ga Dangme Youth Association has called on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and Parliament to take immediate steps to repeal the Land Development Act.
The law makes anybody who develops a building to the lintel level in Accra and its environs the automatic owner of the plot on which the building stands.
The call, which was contained in a speech read on behalf of the youth by their President, Mr Ransford Lamptey, at a news conference in Accra on Monday, said the law has contributed to the indiscriminate sale of land and siting of buildings on unauthorised places in the city, which have been responsible for the perennial flooding.
He said the law, which applies only to Accra and its environs, has been widely abused by public officers and private individuals and also encouraged the proliferation of the landguard phenomenon with its attendant violence.
He described the law as “discriminatory, obnoxious and repugnant to good conscience, and must be immediately repealed.”
Mr Lamptey said the recent directive by the Minister of Works and Housing to the assemblies to demolish all building standing on waterways is a mere window dressing, since it is unworkable in the face of the problems.
“We view this directive as window dressing which will not solve the problems of landguards and the springing up of unauthorised structures. The simple solution is to repeal the law and deal with the associated problems in a sustainable manner,” he said.
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Reduce Mallam Isa’s sentence
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described as shocking the four-year jail sentence slapped on the dismissed Minister of Youth and Sports, Mallam Ali Yussif Isa by an Accra High Court for allegedly stealing $46 million belonging to the state.
“As much as the NDC appreciates the fact that public officials must be held accountable for their actions, especially when such conduct borders on the loss of public funds, the case of the dismissed minister ought to attract the sympathy of the law. This is because he did not only accept responsibility for the loss of the money, he also made an open offer to refund the money, without admitting stealing it,” it said.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Chairman of the Media Committee of the NDC, Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, in Accra on Monday.
The NDC, according to the statement, made it clear that it is not suggesting that the law should be discriminatory in favour of high public officials when it comes to dispensing justice.
“The view of the NDC, therefore, is that justice ought to have been tempered with mercy by the imposition of a shorter custodial sentence, whilst emphasising, the option of recovering the money to state coffers,” it said.
The statement explained that the party’s position is based on the special circumstances surrounding Mallam Isa’s case, which ought to attract more sympathy.
“We also wish to invite Ghanaians to join us in appealing to President Kufuor to exercise his prerogative powers of mercy, by reducing the sentence imposed by the court,” it said.
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Coco Palm's ¢10bn Tax evasion
A Memorandum signed by a Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) intercepted by The Crusading Guide indicates that but for the story published by this paper headlined "COCO PALM EVADES 10 BN TAX …CEPS Remains unconcerned", no attempt would have been made to retrieve the money.
The Memo, signed by S.A.L. Hammond, Deputy Commissioner, Finance and Administration, CEPS, disclosed that the CEPS' investigations report on COCO PALM which could enable management follow up the paper's story could not be retrieved.
"Efforts to retrieve the investigations report to enable management follow up this story have proved futile. Since you are directly involved in the investigations, it is necessary to solicit your assistance to enable Management obtain copies of the report as a matter of urgency", the letter, addressed to Fredua Agyeman, Stanley Boye Quaye and all Deputy Commissioners had indicated.
The Memo also stressed that "They (investigators) are expected to bring up copies of the report immediately for Management's attention".
A source close to Management stated that "It is a mark of irresponsibility on the part of CEPS for them to start looking for documents on tax evasion after a publication in a newspaper".
The paper in its 26th June to 2nd July edition, revealed that COCO PALM, a company alleged to have had links with the ex-First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, evaded tax to the tune of 10 billion, despite a 14 day ultimatum given them last year to settle the debt.
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