Presidential pardon for hon Abodakpi- very unfortunate

Attn: Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, MP and Majority Chief Whip

I read with mixfeelings your comments on Solidnews and carried out on the ghanaweb.com edition of Friday February 16, 2007 concerning Dan Abodakpi's (MP)imprisonment of which your are said to have appealed the President Kufuor to use his executive power to grant the jailed MP amnesty or presidential pardon in order to curtail any political tension.

Much as I appreciate your opinion, I think as a lawmaker you should have considered the enormous implication of your statement on the judiciary before making such unfortunate remarks.

My reaction does not in any way mean that I support Abodakpi's situation and I condemn it if he was not given a fair trial, but I have the feeling that your comments undermines the whole process of adjudication of justice in Ghana. Whether in your view his trial was fair and not politically motivated is a matter for you to decide.

In the first place there is no tension as you claimed. The NDC MPs have a constitutional right to demonstrate against issues they feel uncomfortable in the same way other social players have. (In any case we shall see what happens if they continue their boycott unreasonably, and whether their pay will be frozen as it happened to the graudate teachers). And to use that as a measure to call for his pardon indicates your selective hand of support vis-a-vis many other people langishing in prisons with no one thinking about them.

So because Abodakpi is an MP and a good friend who was/is "hardworking and committed to his duties that saw him holding a ministerial position in the NDC regime" as you indicated he should be pardoned. Why did you not make the same statement when other 'hardworking and committed ministers' like Mallam Yahaya, Kwame Peprah, Victor Selormey were equally placed behind bar for causing financial loss to the state? They were not MPs so they deserve what they got!

Did you also consider thousands of some innocent Ghanaians jailed for your so called presidential pardon? What about those jailed for an average of 5 years for such crimes like theft (some with a value of less than 50,000 cedis) etc? Did you not feel double standard to acknowledge that "records available indicate that the former minister’s action warrants the court sentence" but at the same time appeal for his pardon? What sense of support are your comment in your capacity as an MP giving to the judicial system to be firm, proactive, and unbiased? Do you think Justice Farkye and his colleagues feel any sense of parliamentary support in their efforts to implement the laws you and your colleagues make?

I do not think you need a presidential pardon to get Abodakpi out of prison. I think as a lawyer you should know that you can gather the necessary facts and evidence to appeal on his behalf. In this way you can add value to the beauty of democratic politics, especially within the condition of polarised politics we find our country.

If your comment is not about 'giving favour now in return for favour' in case the NPP happens to be in the opposition in the future, then I personally do not deduce any reasoning from it.

Unless you do think the whole trial process of former public servants like those mentioned above and others like Mrs Rawlings, Tsikata etc are politically motivated but not a true reflection of how they conducted the affairs of the nation (the same way those of you in power will be responsibly measured when your time is over) then your comments smacks the responsibility of parliament and the judiciary in a civilised society.

For an MP to consider the boycott by some MPs a kind of tension needing presidential pardon to me shows how fragile our institutions are. If the effects of a trial of public servants can create a kind of tension that cannot be managed by a society like Ghana, then there is a big question mark on the effectiveness of such institutions like the government, the parliament and of course the judiciary and the whole system of our civil society. What then happens if mass scale natural disaster challenged out development process?

I believe the recent comments by you and your colleague Mr Kennedy Agyapong (MP) on Abodakpi's case give some of us a reason about the fear some of you harbour in the future. But your fear should not deny mother Ghana the justice it deserves from how her resources are constantly abused and unscrupulously utilised unaccounted for. Let me assure you that if you have nothing to hide, certainly there is nothing to fear about.

In showing kindness and solidarity to our colleagues who find themselves in such unfortunate situation like hon. Abodakpi and host of others, let us be mindful of our duty to always act in a way that does not impugn selective support and a feeling of big brother.

That is the only way we can make the laws you make respected and adhered to, and that is the only way you and I can build a civilised society.

Thanks for reading.