NPP Wants Me To Swallow A Bone

With exactly five days to go for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) much hyped congress, the party`s disqualified Presidential aspirant, Hon. Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey is still stirring up the waters of the already boisterous and wavy journey to the upcoming congress.

At a press conference called by him last Friday, the former Army Captain denied being a `bad boy` and lying to the party`s Vetting Committee, stating that he has been forced by the NPP to swallow a painful bone.

According to him, the obvious logical and reasonable course of action to be taken, after what he termed grave injustice, is to go court, place an injunction on the congress and force his detractors to come to terms with justice. The embattled disqualified NPP aspirant, however stated that he would not pursue such action because it would bring incalculable damage to the name and image of the NPP, create chaos and would dislocate its programme towards the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2008.

Addressing the media in Accra, Hon. Effah-Dartey sermonised thus: `I concede that the NPP is bigger than me. I am a loyal founding member and if it is God`s wish that I should be sacrificed on the altar of grave injustice, very well, so be it.` Diving into the details of the report that did him in, he said the confidential report received from the military by the media, which stated he had been charged with four counts of wanting to overthrow the government of President Limann, is bogus.

`In the first place, fellow Ghanaians, in the name of Almighty God, as a Presbyterian communicant Christian who worships in the Accra, Ridge Church, as a lawyer who goes to court regularly and as a sitting Member of Parliament, I say it on my honour that I have not misled the NPP Vetting Committee and I have not lied about my past to anybody,` he emphasised. The NPP disqualified aspirant stressed further, `I have said it time and time again that when I was an army officer, I was arrested on 5 February 1981 and subsequently arraigned before a General Court Martial that acquitted me on mutiny but convicted me on misconduct. I was dismissed from the Army and sentenced to 23 months imprisonment.`

Hon. Effah-Dartey said that count one, the most terrible offence, a first degree felony carrying a death sentence is mutiny but at the level of submission of no case he was acquitted and discharged. Buttressing his submission with a two-page charge sheet document, he further recounted that the count two which was misconduct or conduct to the prejudice of good order and discipline was a minor offence, a misdemeanour, just like count three and four, which carry the maximum penalty of 23 months imprisonment.

He questioned how he could have misled the NPP Vetting Committee in such a situation, saying that he has his living witnesses namely Group Captain J.A. Kotei, who presided over the General Court Martial, Brigadier Donkor, who prosecuted him, Colonel Dodoo and Naval Captain Assassie Gyimah, all of whom were lawyers in the trial. `The question I want all Ghanaians to answer is that if a soldier is convicted of a minor offence, misdemeanour or misconduct, carrying 23 months imprisonment, can that or must that or should that disqualify him from becoming President of Ghana?` he further quizzed.

Confirming that he had served a prison term for 23 months, the embattled disqualified NPP aspirant maintained that he was released, brought to Gondar Barracks and became one of the top initial officers that crafted the very early days of the 31st December Revolution. Hon. Effah-Dartey said it was a notorious fact that he was reinstated into uniform as an officer of the Fifth Battalion of Infantry on secondment to the PNDC headquarters and that PNDC in a session quashed his conviction and sentence and for avoidance of doubt added a pardon.

He contended that somebody who probably was not even a soldier in 1993 has written a report about him without being able to put his number, rank and appointment beneath, saying that the PNDC mitigated his sentence as a result of which he was released from the Army in 1993. He said the party has not treated him fairly by not giving him the opportunity to react to `This false data on me. Instead when Peter Mac Manu gave it to me and I started showing him the obvious errors in them, he quickly collected it back.` `Why must I be condemned on the basis of a false report?` he asked, quoting that the ninth commandment in the Bible says `Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour.` Hon. Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey, who said the party leadership has given him a raw deal, questioned thus: `With all respect Sir, National Chairman, why did you not invite me to the hearing of the appeal? Was it fair that you invited the chairman of the Vetting Committee but left me out? Sir, with all the apparent errors in the confidential report, is it fair to maintain your decision?`

Touching on his much trumpeted and controversial title Captain, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Berekum said he was promoted to Captain in 1983, saying that from his complementary card, MP letter head and law letter head `I do not state Captain anywhere`.