Mallam Issa has been denied Justice - mahama

The leader of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Mr. Edward Mahama, has stated that the imprisoned sports minister, Mallam Yusif Issa, has been denied justice.

Dr. Mahama, also the flag bearer of the party in the 2000 general election, regretted that since February this year, the application of appeal by Mallam Issah’s counsel has not been heard.

Speaking to Chronicle on telephone, on his way to Nkoranza, the PNC leader said he was expecting the hearing of the case as earlier as possible, since it was fast-tracked.

He requested that the same procedure through which Mallam Issah was tried at the Fast Track Court should be used to hear his appeal, adding, “justice delayed, is justice denied.”

Earlier, on Sky FM radio at Sunyani, the PNC leader had remarked on the way and manner the Kufuor government had handled Mallam Issah’s issue.

Dr. Mahama said Kufuor took the head of his party (Mallam Issah) against Mahama’s protest and made him a minister.

He continued that, taking the national chairman of the PNC to make him a minister amounted to sabotage of his party.

This is because for the next four years, the party would find it difficult to organise itself, without a chairman, to contest the next elections.

Dr. Mahama recalled that he came out with a statement, but President Kuffour would not listen and finally took him and locked him up.

He explained that, when Mallam Issah was invited by Kufour to be the minister, the National Executive Committee of PNC made its stand clear on the matter.

Mallam Issah himself took the position as a citizen of Ghana, which according to Dr. Mahama, was legitimate.

The PNC leader disclosed that Mallam Issah himself never came to him to tell him about what happened; Mahama however defended that Mallam Issa never took the money, because he trusts him.

“Mallam Issah never took the money and hid it somewhere, so that he can use it later”, said the PNC leader who, however, described Mallam Issah’s issue as negligence which led to the loss of the money.

According to Dr. Mahama, a loss is not theft, saying, “If you give me money and I lose it, it does not mean I have stolen it.”

He was of the view that, President Kufuor did not trust Mallam Issah and that was why the Attorney General was instructed to prosecute him.

The PNC leader told Chronicle that the ruling of Kufuor might be different from that of his rule, that is he, Mahama, would not have imprisoned Issah.

He said Ghanaians are to unite themselves and should not expect someone from elsewhere to do that for them.

Dr. Mahama who has recently toured the conflict areas of the country (Bawku and Wa) insisted that Kufour should have gone to find a lasting solution to the numerous problems at those places.

The PNC leader, argued that the President can make many foreign tours in a bid to bring investors, but if there is no peace in the country, no investor would come to invest.

On Rawlings’ “Positive Defiance,” Dr. Mahama declined to comment, saying the national executive of the party is yet to meet and discuss it.