The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has accused the National Security Advisor, Alhaji Baba Kamara of abusing his position by ordering the arrest of a man on suspicion that he took pictures of his private property.
BNI ordered for the arrest of Dr. Ayo Ani, the managing Director of Marbles and Granites for allegedly taking pictures of vehicles belonging to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
They also accused him of alleging that the vehicles, which were parked on his property at Tema, were meant for the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).
Addressing a press conference in Accra Tuesday, Nana Akomea, Director of Communications for the NPP said "the intimidation and abuse of power by President Mahama's national security advisor has come into play in this matter. The arrest of those alleged to have taken the pictures was ordered by Baba Kamara who is a national security advisor at the office of the President. If Mr. Kamara believed that the privacy of his property had been violated, his cause of action should have been a civil one. By ordering the BNI to arrest the people, Mr Kamara stands accused of using his official position to coerce and abuse his neighbours..."
Read full statement below
THE GOVERNANCE BY CORRUPTION AND WASTAGE OF PUBLIC FUNDS, ILLEGALITIES, INTIMIDATION AND BRAZEN ABUSE OF POWER, LIES AND DECEPTION MUST STOP
Ladies and Gentlemen, today we bring to your attention and to the attention of ghanaians, the continuing episodes of corruption and wastage of public funds, illegalites, intimidation and brazen abuse of power, lies and deception that characterize President Mahama’s NDC government.
IS THE JOHN MAHAMA GOVERNMENT DIVERTING PUBLIC VEHICLES FOR ITS 2016 CAMPAIGN?
Ladies and gentlemen, information and pictures that filtered through last week showed a large number of Mahindra pickups which were being branded in NDC colours. The story was that these pickups were meant for the use of the National Commission for Civic Education, but had been commandeered by the NDC for their election campaign.
Even though this story on the diversion was not verified, it has been given credence by the subsequent actions of the government. The owners of the property adjacent to where the branding was taking place, were arrested by the BNI, on the suspicion that they had taken the photographs of the pickups and branding.
Then even more strangely, footage has emerged of the pickups being driven at dawn, under heavy Police cover, including blockage of part of the spintex road, away from the premises to an unknown destination.
The question that arise is why if the NDC had genuinely bought pickups for their campaign, people will be detained and questioned by the BNI on suspicion of having taken pictures of the vehicles?
A second question is why, after the vehicles were photographed, they were surreptitiously moved at dawn under Police cover and escort including blockage of the road?
Could there be some truth then in the conjecture that there was something untoward about the pickups, that they were indeed public properties which have been commandeered by the NDC for the 2016 campaign?
Is this another case of taxpayers monies being employed in prosecution of the NDC campaign? Is this a case of abuse of incumbency gone mad?
The NPP and Ghanaians anxiously await answers to these questions.
INTIMIDATION AND ABUSE OF POWER BY PRESIDENT MAHAMA'S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
Ladies and Gentlemen, a related matter to this saga relates to human and civil rights of Ghanaians.
The arrest of those alleged to have taken photographs of the pickups was ordered by Mr. Baba Kamara, the National Security Advisor at the office of President Mahama.
Even if Mr. Kamara believed the privacy of his property had been violated, his course of action should be a civil case. By ordering the BNI to arrest his neighbours, because he suspects them to have taken the pictures and violated his privacy, Mr. Kamara will stand accused of using his official position to coerce and intimidate civilians.
Mr. Kamara is taking Ghana back to the regime of settling civil disputes through the use of the coercive tools of the criminal justice system of the state. This is very dangerous and all Ghanaians must stand up against this unfortunate development.
ODIKE
Mr. Odike is the founder, leader and flagbearer of the United Front Party.
The party recently outdoored its new colours, which are quite close to the NPP colours. Many people have wondered why this party will deliberately choose new colours that are close to the colours of another political party and may confuse supporters of both parties?
Last week Mr. Odike was caught on tape, disclosing how the NDC will soon be advancing huge monies to his party. In his words, “very soon they will bring me the monies for the work, and we will recover our cost. When you go behind my back with your machinations, Asiedu Nketia calls me and give me all the information. The money will come very soon.”
Ladies and Gentelmen, in the face of the blatant deprivation that million of Ghanaians suffer every day, these are some of the activities that the NDC government spends taxpayers monies on--- sponsoring pseudo political parties.
SUPERLOCK TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED (STL)
Ladies and Gentlemen, one fallout from the so called South African 3 affair is the documents on staffers of the Company STL.
Information in the public domain sourced from the BNI indicates that one of the South Africans also had in his possession document containing profile of STL.
This set the question of why such a company profile should interest the BNI.
Then on Tuesday 29th March, 2016 a formal statement issued by the Minister of Interior asserted that the possession of a document on STL was a security concern as “STL is the company contracted by the Electoral Commission to transmit tallied election results.”
Ladies and Gentlemen you will recall that this matter of the specific role of STL in the transmission of tallied election results had been a matter of great controversy during the 2012 elections.
At that time, the NPP had made the accusation that an unaccountable third party, the STL, was engaged in the transmission of tallied election results, thus raising the spectre of interference with results before they got to the EC.
At the time, the Electoral Commision, in a statement issued by the Chairman on 8th December 2012, asserted, “ The Commission’s attention has been drawn to allegations that it had engaged the services of a company to do electronic transmission and collation of results on its behalf. We wish to state emphatically that no such engagement has been made neither is the Commission doing electronic transmission of results.”
The Commission reiterated that election results are signed and sent by Fax and no company has been engaged for any such undertaking.
Ladies and Gentlemen, this emphatic denial by the Electoral Commission on its engagement of a private company to transmit tallied election results has been directly contradicted by government.
The huge concern and controversy that arose in 2012 over a private company’s transmission of results arose largely due to the possibility of such a private company manipulating the results before transmission to the EC. It called for the intervention of international observers led by Nigerian ex President Obasanjo and the flat denial by the EC to achieve some uneasy calm.
Now the case has been shattered by the government itself.
Did the EC lie to Ghanaians?
Or did the Minister Of Interior lie?
The big question that arises is why, and also to what end? did the EC so strenuously deny the involvement of STL in the results transmission when the company was actually doing that function?
So today, we are faced with the ominous possibility that there was a hidden hand of a private contractor in the crucial process of transmission of election results, and the possibility of the manipulation of the results by this third party private company. This development again throws into major doubt the integrity of the 2012 election results.
Ladies and gentlemen, in this matter, we are also confronted with the side spectacle of NDC stalwarts like Kofi Adams,speaking for the EC and attempting to devalue the official statement from the Minister of Interior. The question that arises again is, why is the ndc interested in denying that STL was engaged by the EC?
What are the EC and Ndc hiding about the engagement of STL? And why are they hiding? Why, why why?
PRESIDENT MAHAMA, THE NPP AND VOLTA REGION
Why President Mahama was responding to the Awoamefia Togbe Sri lll. Why he will bring in his so called npp record is hard to understand.
By bringing up the npp's so called record in the volta region, was President mahama engaging in the usual ndc ploy of playing up the npp as against the region?
Can president mahama look himself in the eye and say that in all the eight years of the npp, not a school, road , clinic, water etc was done by the npp in any district in the Volta Region? Keta sea defence, the estates, Ho town roads etc etc.
Is president mahama this desperate?
The president need not be told that the complaints against the ndc in Volta Region are coming from the voltarians themselves, and not the npp. What Togbe Sri told him in his face was not from the NPP, or?
To jog the president's memory, it may be worthwhile recounting some of the sentiments of Togbe Sri :
"This meeting is meant to afford you the opportunity to appreciate directly the concerns and frustrations of our people who are agitating against your government"
"We do not seem to be receiving good dividends from the partnership we have with the ndc.
Your excellency, we appreciate the number of developmental and infrastructural facilities that you have provided.
Laudable as these efforts may seem, they fail to address a very crucial fundamental need of the teeming unemployed masses.
The poverty level in our area is therefore very high.
The hardships are tremendous to narrate.
The only alternative left to them is to resort to robbery, smoking and prostitution".
These are the words and sentiments expressed by Togbe Sri, not by the npp
President mahama has greatly disrespected togbe Sri and voltarians by relegating their grievances to cheap partisan politics.
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