Baako Goes After Rawlings Again

Mr. Kweku Baako Jnr., 1999/2000 Journalist of the year and Editor-In-Chief of the Crusading Guide has once again taken his crusade to Boom Junction, at North Ridge, a plush suburb of Accra.

According to a publication in the Thursday October 17-23rd edition of the Crusading Guide, a letter purported to have been written by a yet to be identified person linked to the an influential person in the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) revealed a plot to receive kickbacks (palm greasing) from COTECNA, a Swiss-based pre-shipment inspection company to the tune of $500,000.

The said letter generously mentioned the name of the former President Flight Lieutenant J.J Rawlings, the former Minister for Trade and Industry Mr. Dan Abodakpi, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Keta and other persons, most of whom are non-Ghanaians. Countries, including the Gambia were also mentioned.

Last Thursday, the host of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV Mr. Egbert Faibille, asked Mr. Baako what he hopes to achieve by pursuing the former President, so relentlessly. He stated that he can and would investigate any state official, but more importantly, he is doing this in collaboration with the “Network of International Investigative Journalists and Professional Researchers”.

He explained that the group investigates and follows a relentless crusade to unravel the phenomenon of political payments, kick-backs and palm greasing which characterised both local and international business and trade transactions during the 19-year reign of former President Rawlings in Ghana.

The newspaper published that the letter under scrutiny, was written by a long-standing friend of the former President in 1996 in which the friend, a former Airforceman lamented over what he considered as an unwarranted interference in his business deals by former deputy minister of Trade and Industry Hon. Dan Abodakpi.

According to the newspaper, the letter proves that the NDC, the ruling party in 1996 was a beneficiary of political payments and kick-backs on contracts given out to foreign business entities by the government or the state.

The letter also mentions a former State Attorney as having assisted in brokering a COTECNA deal in the Gambia and who was expected to travel to Switzerland on August 27, 1996 to discuss some matters with this undisclosed person.

The former Airforceman claimed that if he was able to fly to Geneva, he would commit COTECNA to their promised 7 per cent out of which he intended to pay not less than 1.5 per cent to the party.

According to him, it was his own general undertaking that a major percentage of not less than 4 per cent should remain in the host country in the name of Justice.

Revealing that he “had been instructed to hold discussions with the Hon. Abodakpi to determine any possible benefits to the Party …”, the close pal of ex-President Rawlings lamented that “COTECNA was going to have a field day as they tried to cut me out of the deal and proceeded to throw peanuts at the party (NDC) in order to save money all in the name of the President”.

After an elaborate account of his predicament and the role then allegedly being played by Hon. Abodakpi and COTECNA to his financial detriment, the long-standing Rawlings pal, stated “given the background information available in previous paragraphs, I propose that as bonafide agent for COTECNA, I could go to the Management of COTECNA with the President’s backing and insist that monies due me should be paid to the party. That was a precondition anyway”.

He continued: “I shall then request that they pay, up-front all monies that will upon projection, accrue on my account to the end of the contract period. This being election year (1996) it could go a long way to help renew their contract, come 1997. I believe they should be happy to part with US$500,000. We then share such monies equally as agreed with the Hon. Abodakpi or as the President might deem fit. With me back on track, I will have no excuse but to go further afield and conquer other territories to our mutual benefit”.

“In future I would humbly suggest that the name of the President be the last resort in any business transaction as he should have the opportunity to deny any collusion in such matters. As it stands, the President cannot claim innocence of soliciting funds from the Masseys”, he added.