NDC Dedicates Electoral Victory To Tsatsu

The leadership of the National democratic Congress have dedicated their electoral victory to Tsatsu Tsikata, the jailed former Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Chief Executive.

Addressing party supporters at its headquarters shortly after the NDC presidential candidate, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills was declared president-elect Saturday by EC boss Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Djan, NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia said “this victory should be dedicated to our unsung hero, Tsatsu Tsikata”

In November Professor Mills asked for prayers from all Ghanaians, especially NDC faithful, Tsatsu Tsikata who is battling with an asthmatic wheeze. According to the Law professor, Mr. Tsikata’s trial and subsequent incarceration was one of the many incidents of ‘selective justice’ by the NPP to get at its opponents at all cost.

“Today, we are all rejoicing of the oil found in our country; one man who played an important role in getting us this far is the jailed former GNPC boss, Tsatsu Tsikata. He has been trying to prove his innocence and yet seem not to be heard. This is just an example of the injustice we’ve been talking about.” Tsatsu was charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state and misapplying public funds and after almost six years of trial, the Accra Fast Track High court finding him guilty of all four counts of causing financial loss of about ¢2.3 billion to the state through a loan he, acting on behalf of the GNPC, guaranteed for Valley Farms Limited, a private cocoa producing company in 1991, and misapplying public property.

The court, presided over by Justice Henrietta Abban, sentenced him to five years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently.

Before his sentence, Mr. Tsikata was seeking an order at the Supreme Court to bring the International Finance Corporation to testify in the case in which both the Court of Appeal and the Fast Track High Court had ruled that the IFC has immunity from the processes of the courts.

But Mr. Tsikata insisted that failure to get the corporation to testify "will occasion a miscarriage of justice".

Tsatsu is currently at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital where he is receiving treatment for an asthmatic condition which worsened while in the Nsawam Medium Security Prison.

The president-elect is widely expected make the release of Tsatsu his top priority, once he takes the reins of government on January 7th.