NDC On The "Political Trial And Conviction Of Abodakpi"

PRESS CONFERENCE BY NDC ON THE POLITICAL TRIAL AND CONVICTION OF HON. DAN ABODAKPI

Thank you for responding at such short notice to our invitation. It is with a deep sense of regret and sadness that we address you at this press conference today.

Yesterday, the nation was given further evidence that the NPP has still not abandoned its declared agenda to use the Fast Track Courts to destroy the National Democratic Congress through the use of political trials to jail the party’s leading members and functionaries. This agenda, we recall, was made by hon. J.H. Mensah way back in 2001.

Yesterday we received with profound shock and dismay the verdict of the fast track High Court presided over by Justice Farkye. The latest victim of this agenda is none other than Hon. Dan Abodakpi, our party’s Member of Parliament for the Keta constituency and the former Minister for Trade and Industry under the past NDC administration.

Yesterday, Hon. Dan Abodakpi was sentenced to ten years imprisonment on each of the seven counts he was charged with to run concurrently, with hard labour.

We in the NDC remain committed to the Rule of Law. We will support efforts to strengthen the institutions of state, especially the judiciary and the legislature. However we are vehemently opposed to the use of criminal legislation as a tool for persecution of political opponents. The NPP is evidently engaged in the use of the criminal justice system to selectively investigate, persecute and prosecute members of the NDC in order to achieve its sinister agenda of weakening the official opposition- we shudder and fear for the future of our infant democracy.

A firm and fair judiciary is a critical cornerstone of democratic governance all over the world. Regrettably, it would appear that these attributes are in danger of being compromised in our country today.

The declaration by the Chief State Attorney in his final submission on 18th Dec that, “It is not everything that is governed by law,” in our opinion sums up the political undertones that surrounded the trial. From the above, it is obvious that the verdict was not in consonance with the rule of law.

Hon Dan Abodakpi has therefore become the latest victim of NPP’s politics of judicial manipulation and political witch hunting designed purely to decimate the main opposition.

In its 18th December final submission, the Prosecution made the following categorical statement that the accused person willfully caused the loss of $250,000 and not $400,000. “My lord, our submission is that by so doing the accused persons had willfully caused the nation $250,000 in excess of what should have been paid.”

This is clear evidence that even the prosecution had revised the original quantum of loss from the initial $400,000 to $250,000. It represents a tacit acceptance by the prosecution that some work was done for which indeed payment had to be made. It therefore beats our wildest imagination how the learned judge could still proceed to pronounce judgment and sentence on the basis of the original charge of $400,000 financial loss?

During the trial, a witness of the prosecution, Mr. Bibilazu of the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) admitted under oath that the minimum amount that an offshore company would charge for such a project would be between $75,000 to $150,000. When asked what the maximum amount in his estimation was, he stated that there was no maximum. If there was no maximum, then on what basis was the $400,000 cost of the project described to be a loss to the state?

The Defense team established beyond all reasonable doubt that the prosecution failed to produce a vital document which they claimed the accused wrote requesting payment for a feasibility study rather than a study proposal. A prosecution witness affirmed that the letter in question was given to the police. Despite the critical value of this letter to the case, the judge went ahead to pronounce judgment without calling for the document.

Again the Prosecution conceded that there was a valid contract in respect of the project. If that was the case, and there was indeed a valid contract, the question we ask is, from where does the charge of fraud emanate?

It is also highly instructive that in his final decision, the learned judge very copiously summed up the prosecution’s arguments, but never once made a reference to the case put forth by the defense. As conventional practice in such judgments go, the judge sums up the arguments of the prosecution and also the case put forward by the defense and proceeds to explain why he thinks judgment must go either in favour of the prosecution or the defence. Sadly this was not the case. Justice Farkye just repeated the arguments of the prosecution hook line and sinker and adopted it as his judgment even including positions that the prosecution had abandoned in the course of the trial.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

An application by Defense Counsel for leniency, a well established practice in Commonwealth countries was rudely denied the Counsel for Hon. Abodakpi. What a travesty of justice?

Additional to the strange events that characterized the judgment of the Abodakpi trial yesterday, just as the judge had started reading the first paragraph of his judgment, a clerk walked in and whispered into his ears. He then paused for awhile, left the court room and returned to his chamber. He returned after about after about ten minutes clutching in his hands a blue diary. He then started reading all over again and in the process appeared so confused that he kept referring to the National Democratic Congress as the National Defence Council.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the media:

It will amaze you, that as I speak to you today, the money which is supposed to be at the centre of this case and which is deemed to have been lost to the state is still sitting in the frozen account of Dr. Fred Boadu at ECOBANK, Ghana. We ask therefore, where really is the loss to the state?

We love our country Ghana and recognize that it is the only one we have and that all of us citizens irrespective of our political affiliation must work to preserve and protect the interest of our dear country. Unfortunately when we have a government that is intent on prosecuting the opposition into oblivion, while it closes its eyes to blatant act of corruption and financial loss occurring in its own administration, the platform cannot exist for achieving national cohesion and reconciliation that we all crave.

Ladies and gentlemen:

Attached to this statement is an addendum of cases that have been crying even for simple investigation to establish the truth or otherwise of allegations that have appeared in the media since 2001. Unfortunately, we have a situation where, we have a President who says he will not proceed on newspaper allegations, and that persons who have evidence on any of these matters must provide such evidence to the state, before any action is taken. And yet in the instance of many of the cases currently being prosecuted against NDC officials, they also began as mere newspaper allegations.

This attitude of the first citizen of state runs completely counter to his avowed policy of Zero Tolerance for Corruption. We believe that justice must be blind, and that the sword of justice must cut in any direction notwithstanding political or ethnic affiliation. Unfortunately we are unable to say confidently that that is the situation in our beloved country Ghana. We just hope that those currently administering this measure of justice, must remember, that the same measure with which they judge their political opponents today, might be the same measure by which they are judged in the future.

We must break this cycle of vengeance where justice is administered selectively based on one’s political coloration. It certainly does not bode well for Ghana especially at this unique year in our history when we celebrate 50 years of leadership in Africa.

There are more trials of office holders and leading members of NDC currently ongoing. We hold our breaths and expect the worst. We however wish to state emphatically that these will not shake the resolution of our party to fully participate in the constitutional governance of this country and give voice to our teeming supporters and sympathizers across the country. The NDC is here to stay and the earlier some people adjusted to that reality, the better it will be for our dear nation Ghana.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Following the meeting of the functional executive yesterday, the party has directed the Parliamentary caucus not to participate in the work of Parliament commencing today in solidarity with our imprisoned colleague, Hon. Dan Abodakpi.

Thank you.

A FEW ALLEGATIONS CRYING FOR INVESTIGATION BY NPP ADMINISTRATION

1. VRA. Strategic Reserve Plant led to an alleged colossal loss of about $35 million to the state.

2. TMA: Computerization contract and decommissioning of Kpone refuse dump site.

3. Cost incurred in pursuing IFC and CNTCI loans

4. Energy Commission. Lease agreement for HQ building involving 7.5 billion cedis.

5. UNIMAX MACMILLAN Contract involving $27 million

6. over 3 billion cedi importation of mango seedlings in the harmattan.

7. Criminal waste and neglect of Quality Grain Equipment

8. Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA): Purchase of plastic dustbins worth 2 billion from Apotosu Co. Ltd. without following due procedure

9. Management Consultancy contract to Telenor leading to huge losses to Ghana Telecom

10. Bambagate Scandal

11. Sahara oil deal

12. Numerous allegations of malfeasance against DCEs etc

13. Lack of transparency in National Identification Card Project

14. Lack of transparency in procurement of Police vehicles from Nigeria