Mills Wants To Intimidate NPP

Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, says the ongoing brouhaha surrounding NPP firebrand Kennedy Agyepong is a deliberate ploy by President Mills to intimidate and cow the entire leadership of the NPP into submission. According to Jake, President Mills in deploying state resources against political opponents is �prepared to sacrifice the rule of law and the national interest to satisfy his desire for his own political gain, by the use of violence and cheap propaganda.� In a statement issued yesterday after the Assin-North MP was granted bail, the NPP Chairman commended the Judiciary for upholding the rule of law and called on all �NPP supporters and well wishers to have faith in our judiciary and show respect and support to court officials and officers.� Jake maintained that had the Magistrate done the will of the President and his appointees and remanded Kennedy Ohene Agyapong for two weeks, no one could have answered for the reaction of those showing him support in Accra, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Kumasi and other cities and towns across Ghana. The NPP chairman noted that the primary aim of arresting, detaining and prosecuting Ken Agyepong is first and foremost �to put the fear of the �Asomdwehene� in the NPP� and secondly to punish Ken for leading the crusade on the GH�51 million Woyomegate scandal and other dubious multi-million dollar judgment debts made by his government mainly to his major financiers. �It is obvious that President Mills and his administration have been rocked by Kennedy Agyapong�s expos� on the judgment debt scandals, in which GH�51.8 million was doled-out to Mr Woyome, and arbitration settlements of �35 million and �94 million were given to Waterville and CP Construction Ltd, respectively. �These payments were illicit because no evidence was proffered to support the claims. On the contrary, government ignored all the glaring evidence that the claims were fraudulent,� Jake added. Jake noted that President Mills� agenda of seeking to discredit the character of Ken Agyepong will not whitewash the criminal wrongdoing of his administration. It is on record that out of GH�642 million worth of judgment debts paid by President Mills� government between 2009 and 2011, at least US$197.5 million (or GHC356 million) has been clearly identified, in the words of the sacked Attorney-General, Martin Amidu, as �gargantuan crimes against the state� and fraudulently given to just three or so individuals and entities. In the view of the NPP Chairman, Mr Agyapong, has, over the last few months, shown exceptional courage and patriotism in exposing the extent of �the gargantuan crimes being committed through the instrumentalisation of very senior people in the government, including the President, who ultimately authorized these payments.� Mr Obetsebi-Lapmptey reaffirmed the NPP�s backing of Mr Agyepong, adding: �the NPP remains firmly behind the Hon. Kennedy Agyepong in his quest for justice in the unfounded accusations of treason made against him.� Jake continued, �We would not sit by and allow the rule of law to be transformed into the misrule of Mills.� The NPP Chairman also decried the nature of the selective justice being displayed under the law professor, President JEA Mills, describing it as unprecedented in the history of the Fourth Republic. �Ghanaians can judge for themselves why the two Ministers of State directly and actively responsible for making these corrupt payments, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, and Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, have not been charged for this unprecedented fraud against the Ghanaian people�, Jake added. Comments