Manasseh Azure Awuni has issued a touching message to President Mahama regarding his continued withdrawal of court cases against certain individuals. He ultimately questions the president’s resolve in the fight against corruption in Ghana.
The details of his message are as follows:
“Ghanaians deserve to know the basis for the government’s mass discontinuation of court cases against officials and associates of the previous Mahama administration.
A few of these cases, such as the prosecution of the Democracy Hub protesters, raised concerns among many Ghanaians. It is, therefore, unsurprising that those charges have been dropped.
However, the majority of the cases involve corruption and allegations of causing financial loss to the state. For a president who has vowed to reset Ghana and prosecute government officials implicated in financial malfeasance, this mass clearance is a misstep. It sets a dangerous precedent.
President Mahama is sending a clear message to NPP officials his administration will prosecute: If you are charged, delay the case as long as possible, and if your party returns to power, the court process will be halted, and you will be set free.
This does not bode well for accountability. Such a precedent undermines Mahama’s commitment to fighting corruption and weakens future anti-corruption efforts. For a president whose administration initiated the prosecution that led to the jailing of its own party members in the GYEEDA scandal, this is a disappointing turn and a flawed approach.
The Attorney-General must not halt prosecutions simply because he has the power to do so. That power belongs to Ghanaians and must be exercised in the public interest.
The courts should be allowed to examine the evidence and determine the guilt or innocence of the accused individuals. In some cases, the state lost substantial sums of money, and the people deserve answers.
Even in the ambulance case, where the accused were acquitted, the state still suffered financial loss. The scandal was real, even if the wrong actors were targeted.
I produced a documentary on the ambulance procurement scandal (titled “Grounded Wheels” on YouTube) and had no doubt that it was a fraudulent deal. I was, however, surprised by the singular focus on Jakpa and Ato Forson while officials from the ministry responsible for procuring the ambulances—who later labeled them substandard after failing to inspect them before shipment—were left unpunished.
Had the procurement not been a scandal, the Mahama administration would not have secretly moved the ambulances from the forecourt of the State House to the Air Force Base at Burma Camp. At a time when people were dying due to a lack of ambulances, this relocation was a deliberate effort to keep the defective vehicles out of public sight. I personally entered and filmed the ambulances for my documentary, and many of the defects matched the inspection report that deemed them unfit for use.
If a case like this—where the accused were acquitted—was still an actual scandal, one can only imagine the extent of the other cases.
I once nicknamed Akufo-Addo the Chief Clearing Agent, and now, Mahama seems to be embracing that title. Let us not forget that not everyone Akufo-Addo publicly cleared was innocent. Take Pius Hadzide, for example—cleared of involvement in the Australia visa scandal—who later admitted his role while campaigning for the Asuogyaman parliamentary seat in the just-ended election.
If the government intends to clear all party members facing trial, the people, in whose name the government operates, deserve a valid explanation. Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) cannot succeed if its implementers are simultaneously engaged in Operation Clear All Looters (OCAL).
And Ghana should aspire to do better than merely imitating failing democracies like the United States.”
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