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Opinions of Tuesday, 6 February 2007

Columnist: Dagadu, Yao

Aggudey "Witch-Hunted"

Recently it was reported in the media that a bench warrant had been issued for the arrest of George Opesika Aggudey, CPP Presidential candidate in the 2004 elections and also Chief Executive of Gocrest Securities for allegedly evading payment of SSNIT contributions of his workers for the past ten years to the tune of 8.15 billion cedis. Since then Mr. Aggudey has come out to accuse the Government of ‘witch- hunting’. WITCH-HUNTING?

Now why would Mr. Aggudey think the government would want to spend its time witch-hunting him, especially when it is the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) which is taking him to task? Of what benefit will such an exercise be to the government? Mr. Aggudey is not in any way a political threat to the government. His political ambition does not in anyway threaten the political future of the NPP. This is a man who on the ticket of the CPP managed to secure a little over 1% in the 2004 Presidential Elections. This is a man who before and after the 2004 elections made comments which made him unpopular in the eyes of the Ghanaian populace. For instance whilst even the NDC had come out to admit that the Criminal Libel law was an affront to the freedom of the media and should not have been entertained in our statute books, Mr. Aggudey insisted that the law should not have been scrapped. How can such a man be a political threat to any Political Party, especially, the NPP government? He even lost 50% of the votes before the elections when he made a derogatory remark toward women during his Presidential Debate!

It is most unfortunate that in this our political era when all efforts are being made to reduce corruption to its barest minimum, some unscrupulous politicians like Mr. Aggudey will engage in massive fraudulent activities and then turn around to hide under the cloak of ‘witch-hunting’ and ‘political victimization’. This is especially so in the case of Mr. Aggudey who lavishly displayed his wealth of many exotic cars and furniture on a TV programme (PARADISE) which aired on TV3. Did he acquire these things with money that was supposed to secure the future of his employees? If this man can act this way in managing only one company, then Ghanaians now have an idea as to what the man had up his sleeves when he sought the mandate of Ghanaians to manage the affairs of our dear country.

Ghanaians are wide awake and we know our rights. Politicians like Mr. Aggudey who hide behind phrases like ‘Witch-Hunting’ and ‘Political Victimization’ to commit fraud should be made to face the full rigors of the law. FOR IF FRAUD COMMITED BY POLITICIANS IS WITCHCRAFT, THEN THE COUNTRY’S JUSTICE SYSTEM SHOULD BE AN EFFICIENT EXORCIST!!



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