More troubles for Malam Isa

ANOTHER TRAGEDY has hit the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Malam Ali Yusuf Isa, who is currently serving a four-year jail term for stealing and causing financial loss to the state.

According to Salifu Ali, junior brother of Malam Ali Yusuf Isa, the former Minister's Nissan pick-up vehicle which conveys him from the Nsawan Prison to the courts, has been stolen.

Salifu Ali told the Chronicle that on the October 22, this year he woke up at about 6:30am to discover that his brother's Nissan pick-up with registration no. GR 5456F, which was parked on a street at Nima, a suburb of Accra, the previous night, had been stolen.

He gave the engine number of the stolen car as T.D. 27352920 and the chassis number as V.B.M.B 2144645.

Ali said following the discovery of the loss of the vehicle, he rushed to the Nima Police Station to make a report to the police.

Salifu Ali showed the Chronicle a certified true copy of an extract from the Nima Police Station dated the 22nd October, 2001 and signed by him to support his claim.

Ali said a week after he reported the matter to the police, there is still no trace of the pick-up van and each time he goes to the police for enquiries, all they keep telling him is that they are still searching for the vehicle.

He added that the police gave him a copy of his report to be taken to any of the FM stations for announcement.

When Chronicle contacted the Nima Police for details of the theft, the District Commander drove this reporter out of his office with words:

"Go away, go away from my office. "You always politicise issues and make money out of it. There are so many cars stolen, why are you demanding that of Malam Isa?"

He further said that if it were to be any car and not necessarily Malam Isa's, he would react.

"You can even go to the Police Headquarters," he added.

When this reporter demanded to know why he was not co-operating, the District Commander then yelled out, "if it were Kofi Coomson, I would treat him the same way."

Early last week, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the former Youth and Sports Minister to have his sentence quashed.

The court, which was presided over by Justice Omari Sasu, however, quashed part of the sentence which ordered the ex-Minister to serve a further two years term in prison if he fails to refund the $46,000 within one month.

The Court of Appeal noted that the two years' conditional imprisonment imposed on the convict by the trial judge was unlawful.

It however held that the ?10 million fine or in default 12 months in prison slapped on him by the trial judge was justifiable in law.

In his statement of appeal, counsel for Malam Isa, Mr. Ambrose Derry, had argued that the trial judge erred in law when he decided that the circumstantial evidence which was adduced by the prosecution led irresistibly to the guilt of Malam Isa.

Mr. Derry explained that the prosecution witnesses from the Ministry of Youth and Sports were aggrieved by the vigilance and the anti-corruption stance of the former Minister of Youth and Sports.