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A flag bearer aspirant of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Bright Oblitey Akwetey, has stated that a CPP government under his leadership will wage a relentless war against corruption and injustices in the country.

According to the anti-corruption crusader, both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have not backed their words to fight corruption and injustices in the country with the needed action.

In his view, the two political parties, under the Fourth Republic, had only engaged in platitudes and political chicanery over the challenges which had long plagued the country and treated offenders with what he described as kid gloves.

Mr Akwetey, who is aspiring for the third time (after 2008 and 2012) to lead the CPP as presidential candidate, said he could not fight corruption and injustice with the NDC or the NPP because to him both parties were involved in the canker and that he could only do so through the CPP, which won independence for the country.
“This country has been deceived by those people who said they were fighting corruption and I cannot fight corruption through NPP and NDC because they are doing the same thing,” he asserted.

CPP Presidential Primary

The CPP has slated its presidential primaries for Saturday, January 29 to Sunday, January 30, 2016. This evening in collaboration with TV Africa, the CPP is holding a presidential debate for all the four candidates who are contesting the primary.

Four candidates have so far picked and submitted nomination forms to contest the primary. They include Madam Yaaba Samia Nkrumah, a former chairperson of the party and former MP for Jomoro; Mr Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, a former two-time General Secretary of the CPP; and Mr Joseph Agyepong, a party stalwart in the diaspora and businessman.

CPP delegates

Mr Akwetey, therefore, called on CPP delegates to vote for a candidate with merit and not the one who could dish out money and goodies.

In doing so, he said, the CPP delegates would have begun the fight against corruption and injustice.

According to Mr Akwetey, “The CPP was led by the person who has inspired and motivated me to fight and love my country as well as protect state property; the man who has inspired me to ensure there is social justice in Ghana and understand the need for black people to get together.”

He said Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s philosophy of self-determination, social justice and Pan-Africanism were still very relevant to the well-being of Ghana’s development, and pledged “a future CPP government will ensure that comes into fruition”.

Looking at the present economic situation, Mr Akwetey pointed out that past leadership had been reckless with Ghana’s natural resources by enacting laws that had handed over the resources on a silver platter to the neo colonialists.

He blamed the first parliament of the Fourth Republic for enacting laws which were suffocating the economy at the moment and said if those laws were not amended or repealed, it would eventually lead to the economy falling deeper and deeper into the abyss.

He mentioned the Minerals and Mining law 1993, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre law passed after the overthrow of the Limann government and the Free Zones law of 1993 which gave away “all our resources to foreign companies whose implementation have made the finance minister running around for loans and eurobonds which have stripped the country of much-needed capital”.

Mr Akwetey further described the laws on foreign exchange as so liberalised such that ‘’we don’t have control over foreign exchange resources and said ‘’even the most liberals of Western countries would not. These have convinced me that the country needs radical changes’’.

Profile

Mr Akwetey was born on March 13, 1949. An ardent Nkrumaist, he was a Young Pioneer. He was called to the Bar in 1977 after graduating from the University of Ghana with a Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree in 1975.

He began his legal career with the Attorney General’s (A-G) Department where due to the predominance of economic crimes, which he observed was costing the nation untold sums of money, found him saddled with the prosecution of such crimes at the Criminal Law Division.

That decision was based on the dual missions of cleaning up and helping recover money for the nation.

He led high-powered teams of investigators and crime officers to conduct investigations into various economic crimes and successfully prosecuted landmark criminal cases.

It was a decade of “real” patriotic practice (from 1982 to 1992) which culminated in the recovery of billions of cedis for the country.

Following his performance at the Attorney General’s Department, the barrister was sent on secondment to the Republic of The Gambia as a Senior Counsel for State Commissions of Enquiry.

He was recalled from the Gambia and retired from the A-G Department and civil practice in October 1999.

He chaired the Legal Committee of Ga-Dangme Council from 1999 to 2007 and served as Chairman of the Legal Committee, Shadow Minister for Justice and Attorney General within the CPP.

Mr Akwetey is currently playing an active role in the CPP’s quest to reclaim all the party’s assets confiscated after the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah as well as representing the CPP at the Electoral Commission for electoral reforms.

He served on the board of the West Africa International Magazine in 2008, and the leading Sub- regional magazine conferred on him the Dr Kwame Nkrumah Leadership Award for his “martyric” pursuit of the Nkrumaist cause.