EOCO – Deafening Silence of Justice

Report by Freelance journalist Abdul Aziz Haruna

It would seem that the presidency is in an unenviable situation of embattlement that must have created the propensity for some institutions under its guardianship to misbehave. It is said that, “while the cats are away, the mice will play” and that is in reference to the many political battles that have defocused our President’s attention from the arms of government that seem to have gone astray.
While we need to maintain the few remaining investors who seem to show some resilience against the economic odds bedevilling Ghana, we, in the same breadth, pray for more to garner courage to rest their endeavours with this nation. However, a disturbing trend is popping up like a multi-headed serpentine. EOCO is, practically, harassing and terrorising such investors and their outfits who have been in the country for decades doing good business with clean records of regular tax and other levy payments.
It is said that some operatives sympathetic to the ruling government, gainfully employed in the relevant companies, are in connivance with officials of the above-mentioned agency to milk their victims and enrich themselves as a result. This must be condemned in no uncertain terms while a look into the operations of EOCO must be eyed with much objectivity. This must be done as soon as possible to halt the retarding name of our institutions that have since become the mockery of all, within and without our borders.
Snippets of information that we are picking refer to such breaches by the relevant authorities whose officers fake gentility to effect their diabolic plans. An oriental investor, who had since packed bag and baggage told Alert Ghana that “surprise letters are initially sent out demanding company documents, certificates and account statements, proof of tax payments, and so on and so forth. Then they call their victims for a “discussion” and prance on a farcical detection of impropriety. This gives them the excuse needed to unleash unbefitting human rights abuses of all sorts. They employ the use of unsuspecting BNI and the victims are made to wear uniforms to depict them as criminals.
These investors are left long hours without decent meals while they are threatened with imprisonment and/or huge fines. This unethical modus-operandi makes it incumbent on all Ghanaians to stand up in the face of the many instances that are a source of disappointment to well-meaning public servants who are trying their hardest to repair damages left by the rancid conduct of their peers.
These gross human rights abuses and swindling tactics are hampering the honest initatives of people like Mr Yaw Donkor, who has been described as “someone who believes in the democratic principles that govern intelligence gathering and the use of that intelligence.”
This victim went on to make a final statement that would send shivers down the spines of hardworking heads of BNI and the security apparel of our dear country: “As if your country does not have enough problems screwing your heads the wrong way round, these people at such sensitive posts seem to have compromised their jobs. They are blemishing the hard-earned reputation of Ghanaians.”
“I will never come back to Ghana and if I should hear of any investor considering your country, I shall make sure to inform them of the rot in your institutions.”
We, therefore, call on H.E President John Dramani Mahama to look into these allegations of malfeasance and misfeasance to avoid the repetitive embarrassment that continues to be visited on Ghanaians, internally and internationally.