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Journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako says if stripped of the propaganda, allegations that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo actively encouraged judgment debt payments are baseless.

He said the claims, made by the General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia (aka General Mosquito), were a rehash of palpably false claims designed to tarnish New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer’s image.

Responding to Akufo-Addo’s ‘real state of the nation address,’ NDC scribe, Asiedu Nketia, accused the former Attorney-General of appealing for a judgment debt to be paid by the government to a private company.

Akufo-Addo had said, “The president also omitted an important group of beneficiaries of his government over the last 8 years. These include Alfred Woyome and other beneficiaries of the ‘create, loot and share’ judgment debt brigade.

This was in reference to the ¢51.2 million fraudulent judgment debt payment to NDC financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

Reacting to the comment, Asiedu Nketia said, “This is a man who made a passionate appeal for payment of judgment debt to the Great Cape Company despite the non-availability of documentation.”

“How can a man be opposed to judgment debt payment and plead for it to be paid at the same time? Such hypocrisy is unbecoming of someone seeking the High office of the President,” he stressed.

But speaking on Joy FM and MultiTV’s news analysis programme, Newsfile, Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku said Asiedu Nketia’s claims were complete fabrications.

“There are some politicians out there who think people have short memories so they don’t give a damn; even when the truth has been put out, they still proceed with the fallacies, the distortions and the lies, hoping that people will buy into it,” he noted. 
Armed with letters, Mr. Baako explained that the claims that the NPP flagbearer appealed for judgment debt to be paid to the Great Cape Company whose local agent was Dr. Nat Tanoh, a brother of NDC guru, Goosie Tanoh, were false.

He read the letter dated 3rd October 2011 signed by Nana Akufo-Addo in reply to a September 20, 2011 letter by Dr. Nat Tanoh on a case which had its genesis in the Jerry John Rawlings government.

Dr. Tanoh’s letter read in part, “I’m by this letter humbly approaching you as well as appealing to you, honourable sir, to kindly assist us in the authentication of the attached letter of April 21, 2001, which you wrote during your tenure as Attorney-General of Ghana and honourable Minister of Justice.

“In this regard, honourable sir, the Minister [of Finance] has made it abundantly clear that he would also be happy to act if he were in receipt of an affidavit or letter from your good self simply stating that you are indeed the author and signatory of the attached letter recommending the supplementary payment to Great Cape through the often mentioned letter though the often mentioned letter is not on a headed paper,” Dr. Nat Tanoh’s letter stated.

Mr. Baako explained that Dr. Tanoh was asking Mr. Akufo-Addo to authenticate a letter he wrote as A-G in 2001 “recommending supplementary payment based on an earlier letter written by Obed Asamoah” who was A-G in the Rawlings government.

“This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 20th September, 2011, requesting my assistance in the settlement of Government’s longstanding indebtedness to Great Cape Company of Switzerland. I am somewhat disturbed by its contents, which have led to the unusual request contained in the letter. It is disconcerting to find that public records keeping has fallen into such straits that the files on this matter cannot be found either in the Ministry of Justice or in the Ministry of Finance. Be that as it may, it will be unconscionable on the part of Government if its own poor record keeping is used to defeat legitimate claims of its creditors. I have a vague recollection of the transaction, and can readily confirm that the signature on the letter ILD/SCR/002 dated 18th April, 2001, addressed to the Ministry of Finance, attached to your letter, is indeed mine. I know from your letter that such a confirmation will satisfy the Attorney-General to whom I am addressing a copy of this letter. I am also sending a copy of the letter to the Ministry of Finance. I hope this is satisfactory for your purpose,” Mr. Baako quoted Akufo-Addo’s letter of October 3, 2011.

Mr. Baako wondered how anybody could construe the contents of this letter as “a passionate appeal for payment of judgment debt to the Great Cape Company despite the non-availability of documentation.”

He further said based on the letter, Nana Akufo-Addo did not go out of his way to make any passionate appeal for payment of judgment to the Swiss company.

He also took issues with claims by Asiedu Nketia that the NPP had created civil society organisations such as IMANI Ghana and Centre for Democratic Development which manufacture reports on the basis of which government is unduly criticised.

“The final thing I will say about Asiedu Nketiah and I have described him as an unmitigated communications disaster, were the things he said relative to IMANI Ghana and CDD. Incredible! Focus, deal with the issues, do a content analysis of what an opposition leader has said, why drag in other institutions? It is so incredible but sometimes it smacks of the arrogance that power comes with,” he said.