Opinions of Wednesday, 28 October 2015

Columnist: The Catalyst Newspaper

Why The NDC Disqualified Jim Morti

As An Aspirant Of Ketu South

…Too many issues of fraud he could not clear

A National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary aspirant in the Ketu South constituency of the Volta Region has been disqualified from the race by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party after the Vetting Committee had the issues referred to NEC for further scrutiny.
The aspirant, Jim Morti’s disqualification by NEC was grounded on issues of forgery of gargantuan magnitude, fraudulent and criminal issues, many petitions, being un-patriotic among others.

Even before the dust settles on his disqualification, a lot more issues including alleged insurance fraud and fraudulent lottery that he was involved in are coming up against him that he has to deal with.
Meanwhile, as decided by NEC, the specific issues are that, Jim Morti’s birthday was found to be false, his place of birth stated on his Curriculum Vitae (CV) and nomination form also unfathomably contradictory. Based on the mountain of issues and evidence against the aspirant, he appeared over pampered at the vetting at the regional level as other aspirants including Morrison Anthony Kofituo of North Dayi was disqualified based on a single misrepresentation.
Jim Morti stated in his CV that he has been pursuing Executive MBA at Legon from 2013 to 2016 but could not convince the Vetting Committee which was armed with information from Ghana’s premier university that no Jim Morti was admitted in 2013 and 2014, as checks revealed that he only entered the University only in Feb 2015 when he went to register.
Jim Morti further stated that he attended Mish Aviation Flying School where he obtained a Medical Certificate in 2013, a claim that he could not establish as he had the Committee members pointing out to him that he could not have obtained a genuine certificate from the school.
Checks with Mish reveal that Jim Morti tried to enter that higher institution of learning in 2013 but failed the entry exams woefully and was thrown out, and so never obtained any certificate from Mish. In fact information has it that Mish is scandalised by his misrepresentation.
Jim Morti, who has not partaken in the obligatory National Service, did not have any information provided on his CV on his secondary education after Middle School Leaving Certificate (MSLC) examination, intimating to the Committee he entered secondary school as a matured student just as Makerere University in Uganda, which he claimed to have attended.
The aspirant also had difficulty providing the year he entered Makerere University in Uganda, and could not provide the program admitted for, time of completion and class obtained.
The party’s checks with the Ugandan University, according to The Catalyst’s impeccable sources within, reveal that he has never attended that University.
There were also huge discrepancies in the ages Jim Morti stated as entering and completing basic school.
He claimed he finished primary school at age 15 and also completed Middle School 9 years after primary school but could not convince the Committee as to how this came about since under normal circumstances, it took 4 years to complete Middle School after primary School.
On his own CV, Jim Morti claimed he was born on Thursday October 10, 1965 and had Yao as his middle name. Checks of the said date showed that it was a Sunday, just as he had on his nomination forms stated Greater Accra as his place of birth but the town Klikor as his place of birth on his CV.
Jim Morti was one of three persons behind a company by name Precious Stones Resources Ltd against whom a petition on fraud from an American businessman, Subhash Neuir was submitted to then sitting President, John Kufour.
According to a 2003 Ghana News Agency (GNA) report, Jim Morti, Francis Asante alias Nana Yaw and Joseph Kwesi Agbetoh had refused to ship 100kg of gold bars to Nueir in the US as negotiated after he (Nueir) had paid $31,325 to the three men through a Standard Chartered Bank at Osu on December 17, 2002.
Mr Subhash Neuir who was assured of prompt handling of the matter by President Kufour got disappointed by the Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Justice at the time, leaving the case unpursued.
Jim Morti’s claim of being a registered member of the NDC in 2001 was disputed by the constituency executives since there was no record to that effect, donations both in cash and kind he claimed to have made to the constituency were not known to anybody including executives.
The aspirant had a herculean task dealing with some other petitions, one of which has to do with failure to honour a Ten Thousand Ghana (GH10,000) owed to Samuel Owusu of BVBA BOSKOUTER GHANA LTD for rent of an apartment in Adjiringanor, Accra.
Having considered the enormity of the issues against the aspirant, the Committee deemed it necessary to refer his case to the NEC, which deemed it fit to disqualify him from the race.