Joe Ghartey to be indicted for Perjury - NDC Virginia Chapter

We the executives and members of the Virginia Chapter of the National Democratic Congress have welcomed the call by a former President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, for the resignation of the Attorney-General Mr. Joe Ghartey. In fact we go a step further by asking for his indictment for obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Mr. Joe Ghartey, in a tussle over the whereabouts of the docket on an alleged case of embezzlement against one Nicholas Sakyi of the Kumasi Urban Roads blamed the purported missing dockets on the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI). He later on apologized to the BNI: ‘"The docket is in my office; we apologize unreservedly to the BNI," Mr. Ghartey said at Thursday's sitting of the Public Accounts Committee in Accra.’. This apology is unacceptable. We are of the view that Mr. Joe Ghartey acted deliberately to circumvent justice in this case. This case was forwarded to his office since 2005 and if he really wanted to deliver justice, would have followed up on the whereabouts of the docket since.

This case is similar to what happened in the US when the chief of Staff (Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby) of the all-powerful Vice President, Dick Cheney, lied to Federal Investigators. Because Americans upholds the rule of law, where everybody is equal before the law, Scooter Libby was indicted for perjury, went through the due process of law and was convicted. Also not different from that of the former US Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, who had to resigned as Attorney General because he couldn’t ‘RECALL’ any event when testifying before a Senate Committee hearing.

The government must give credence to it’s much acclaimed ‘zero tolerance of Corruption’ by indicting Mr. Ghartey to serve as a precedence to would-be wrongdoers that no matter how powerful friends they might have, their wrongs would not go unpunished. And also to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the government is not after all only interested in prosecuting political opponents.

By the Secretary, NDC Virginia Chapter (on behalf of NDC Virginia Chapter)