<<Print>>

When he appeared before the Justice Yaw Appau, Sole Commissioner on Judgment Debt, Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, incurred the wrath of many well-meaning Ghanaians for using that important platform to rain insults on former President John Agyekum Kufuor. Mr Tsikata described former President Kufuor as �a debt collector� for French bank, Societe Generale. Many people, including Abdul Kwaku Baako Jnr, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, and Osei Bonsu Amoah, Member of Parliament for Akuapem South, had insisted the comment was in bad taste, expressing shock at the fact that Justice Appau saw nothing wrong with the insults rained on former President Kufuor. Like many other people, they said they expected Justice Appau to have asked Tsatsu to withdraw the comment. Coming under an avalanche of criticisms from the general public, especially members of the New Patriotic Party, almost a week after Mr Tsikata�s insult, the Commission yesterday finally bowed to the increasing pressure and dissociated itself from the unsavory comment from the former GNPC boss. While doing so in an interview on Citi FM, lead counsel for the Commission, Dometey Kofi Sorgbor, however, insisted they could not held responsible for the comment made by Mr Tsikata. �If Tsatsu said anything, it was his opinion and not that of the commission,� Mr Sorgbor stressed. The Commission has been accused of bias in the way it is carrying out its investigations, especially in respect of the sale of the GNPC�s drill ship. Many people think the line of questioning of Justice Appau clearly indicated that the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was the target. In fact, Kwaku Baaka was emphatic when he said the brouhaha surrounding the sale of the drill ship had emanated from desperate efforts to bring the name of Nana Akufo-Addo into disrepute. According to Mr O B Amaoh, there had been indications that the work of the sole commissioner was seeking to equalize failures of the ruling government to that of the New Patriotic Party with respect to the judgment debts saga. Speaking to Citi News, the MP stated that since both parties were involved in the sale of the drill ship, the blame should not be shifted on only one party. �It appears one group has become the sole target. For instance, I don�t understand why Justice Appau kept insisting that somebody else other than K T Hammond, could have led the transaction in a better way,� Mr Amoah told the New Statesman yesterday.