NO INTENTION TO DEFAME DR. MICHAEL ABU SAKARA IN ARTICLE ON NDC JOINING KISSI AGYEBENG AND JOY FM
THERE WAS NO INTENTION TO DEFAME DR. MICHAEL ABU SAKARA IN THE ARTICLE - “THE NDC NEEDS TO THINK LONG BEFORE JOINING KISSI AGYEBENG AND JOY FM ....”
BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU
I received on 3 June 2024 by email an attached PDF letter also dated 3 June 2024 from the lawyers of Dr. Michael Abu Sakara Foster alleging that some portions of my article published in the media on 27 May 2024 on the subject: “The NDC needs to think long before joining Kissi Agyebeng and Joy FM to try me in the court of public opinion” were defamatory of him. I denied defaming Dr. Abu Sakara Foster in the said article giving reasons for my contention and explaining the fact that I held Dr. Abu Sakara in high esteem. I, therefore, publish hereunder the content of my email to Dr. Michael Abu Sakara Foster’s lawyers to demonstrate that there was no intention to defame him, and I disagree that I defamed him in my said article. The content of my email to Dr. Sakara Foster’ lawyers dated 3 June 2024 is as shown hereunder.
Dear Mr. Azanne Kofi Akainyah,
I have received your email with its attached letter with reference number ABU-SAKARA-1 dated today, 3 June 2024 on the above subject matter.
Dr. Abu Sakara himself knows that I have great respect for him and will in no way intentionally write any defamatory words about or against him. When the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) was investigating the Airbus SE Bribery allegations his name only surfaced because Samuel Adam Foster claimed Dr. Sakara’s residence as abode in Ghana on the forms, he filled at the Ghana Immigration Service at the Kotoka International Airport upon his first entry into Ghana. Your letter under reference agrees that this was on or about 10 June 2006 when there was no Airbus SE-Ghana case. The sentence in my article read within its context uses the words "...., the hotels and leased apartment Samuel Adam Mahama Forster and his UK friends resided in, including the ... where "Samuel Adam Foster claimed as his abode on the forms, he filled at the Ghana Immigration Service at the Kotoka International Airport upon his first entry into Ghana with his UK friends." There is nothing in my article under reference that said or says that Samuel Adam Foster's UK friends also filled on their immigration forms that their place of abode was Dr. Sakara's residence to create the insinuated impression that they resided with Dr Sakara. Based on Samuel Adam Foster’s claim on his immigration form, I reached out to Dr. Sakara through a third person, whose name Dr. Sakara may recollect, and I can supply to Dr. Sakara alone in confidence to aid his recollection for now. I then learnt about the narrative that the Rev. Mr. Foster, the adopted father of Dr. Sakara and Samuel Adam Foster had told another parent about the two mango trees and their fruits which was praiseworthy of, and testimony to, Dr. Abu Sakara and his achievements in life.
The allegation that the property at Roman Ridge was a government property was an intelligence led information to the investigation team by an informant which Dr. Sakara now points out in your letter to me was a misrepresentation of the actual facts. Dr. Abu Sakara has never been a subject of the investigation otherwise I would not have reached out to him through a third person acquainted with both of us. In my understanding, any person who may throw light on an investigation may be invited as a witness and interrogated and that is the context in which I used the words "in case he was required for interrogation". Insisting that I should have used the word "interview" instead of the word "interrogated" is a play on words. He was never required for any interrogation and was not invited because after speaking to the third-party intermediary and learning through the two mongo trees narrative about Dr. Sakara’s integrity, accomplishments and how he took care of his late foster parents, the late Revs. Mr. and Mrs. Foster in life and after death, there was no need to do so, let alone to further investigate the other intelligence received and recorded in the OSP about his residence. In consequence, to insinuate or create an innuendo that Dr. Abu Sakara was an accomplice in the Airbus SE-Ghana case is far-fetched. Dr. Sakara has never been under investigation in the Airbus SE case, and he knows that I reached out to him during the investigation.
The two mango trees and other commendable narratives which the intermediary I asked to reach out to Dr. Sakara passed on to me showed clearly that Dr. Sakara is a self-accomplished person and not the fruit of the mango tree that falls only to stay where it fell. Dr. Sakara and me know each other and you need not remind me of his accomplishment and prominence as a Ghanaian leader and politician. I will be the last person to defame Dr. Sakara and I completely disagree with your assertion that I defamed him in my article under reference. I need not point out to you as a lawyer that it will not be in the interest of Dr. Abu Sakara, or I should the advice of your threat of legal action against me for defamation lead to the remotest unintended perception in the public mind that the threat and consequential legal action may have something to do with Dr. Sakara sharing the same foster name and father with Samuel Adam Mahama Foster.
I apologize to Dr. Sakara about repeating the disinformation the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) received about the vendor of his property referred to in my article and the fact that if my article has created any wrong impressions about his accomplishment and integrity, they were unintended. As you well know, I will not be able to erase any privileged misinformation and records collected under Act 959 at the OSP now that I am out of that Office.
I am willing to publish the content of this email, unedited, to the public whom Dr. Sakara or you are worried of, to demonstrate that there was no intention to bring the integrity or reputation of Dr. Sakara into disrepute as I have always held him in high esteem.
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
POSTSCRIPT:
I have re-emphasized in an email exchange with Dr. Abu Sakara Foster’s lawyers today, 4 June 2024, inter alia, that: “.... There was no intention to defame Dr. Abu Sakara and I have not admitted defaming him. My reply to you of 3 June 2024 should not, therefore, be misconstrued or interpretated in any way to mean that I am afraid of contesting any legal action in defamation...”
Martin A. B. K. Amidu
4 June 2024
The continued political witch-hunt against Ken Ofori-Atta by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Government of Ghana through sections of the rented Ghanaian media any time he prevailed in defending his rights under the INTERPOL and the US Immigration laws is nauseating and shameful.
The public is entitled to know the reasons Ms. Justice Akuffo assigned for her resignation to enable us to determine what the government had done to warrant the unprecedented step of a former Chief Justice resigning from the Council of State in the history of the 1992 Constitution. The Government also owes the people of Ghana an explanation for the delay in disclosing and informing the public of the tendering of her resignation.
Every election the NDC has won under the 1992 Constitution has consistently been based on promises to the electorate to implement policies anchored on the core values of probity, accountability, transparency, and social justice underpinning the 4 June 1979 Revolution and Constitution of the NDC: the 1992, 1996, 2008, 2012, and 2024 elections speak for themselves. The NDC’s ability to win the 2028 elections will depend on how the electorate perceives the party’s commitment to these values. It is too early for sycophancy, gloating, and flaunting of awards about successes when one remembers the adulations of the early years of the Akufo-Addo government.
The inerasable truth is that Dr. Bawumia is not the first incumbent Vice President and presidential candidate to concede defeat to his opponent under the 1992 Constitution to reduce electoral tensions in an atmosphere charged with suspicion of the ruling government intending to rig presidential elections.
I cannot as a person born in the then NT recommend Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as a person with the trait of honesty, integrity and selfless service exhibited by our forebearers from the NT to the Republic of Ghana to be elected on 7 December 2024 as President symbolizing a representation of northerners on an NPP ticket for Ghana. Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is not only an opportunist and pretender, he has lost track of the high moral character associated with his own biological family and the forebearers of Northern Ghana.
The corrupt and looting government machinery of Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia are so power drunk that they only see the ordinary Ghanaian as a zombified idiot whose vote can be bought after dangling a few television pictures, news broadcast, and other media propaganda of completed and uncompleted projects to becloud his memory. Let us defend the Constitution by demanding probity and accountability, now on 7 December 2024! Let us defend the Constitution by demanding probity and accountability, now on 7 December 2024!
The deep polarization and intense emotions generated by the governance of the country under the Akufo-Addo/ Mahamudu Bawumia administration shows that the future stability of the 1992 Constitution is dependent on how free, fair, and transparent the 7 December 2024 elections are seen to have been managed and conducted by all the public institutions entrusted with supervising the elections. The time to defend the 1992 Constitution against election interference is NOW!
The fact that the acting President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, stands to be a beneficiary of the Bawku Traditional Area crisis precipitated due to the indolence of the Government only two months to the 2024 elections should the registered voters in the six constituencies in the UER be unable to exercise their franchise freely and fairly, comes into focus with his inaction as acting President during the October 2024 conflict period.
I exercised my right as a citizen of Ghana to bring the petition myself and I have no regrets for doing so despite the rigged outcome smacking of the exercise of the relics of imperial medieval powers. I am, however, confident that history shall absolve me when the content of my petition and the review submitted by the Chief Justice become available to the public for its evaluation. When the vendetta and trials of mere suspects in the court of public opinion start again, the utility of my petition will be remembered.
“Self-preservation is the first law of nature”, and it would be political suicide for Nana Akufo-Addo to assent to the LGBTQ+ Bill being passed by Parliament into law. Nana Akufo-Addo’s long game, the aura he has built around himself as a democrat in the Western tradition, and all the ingratiation efforts he has invested in, will come to nought should he assent to the Bill upon passage. The fact that other citizens knew the difficulty the Bill was going to face when it got to the desk of the President was articulated by no less a person than Minority Leader Ato Forson.
The problem with the manner the NDC Press Release was couched is that from my personal experience whosoever has been nominated by John Mahama as his running mate must have been invited and offered the nomination and he or she must have accepted the nomination already. The Ahwoi’s and their cohort, who now claim ownership of the NDC, speaking through Kwasi Ahwoi, named Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang as the successor to the National Democratic Congress flagbearer John Mahama after 2024. John Mahama is tied to their apron strings.
The NPP and the NDC should be careful about quoting what I said or wrote in the past out of context to spuriously support allegations of corruption or mismanagement against each other for the purely propaganda purpose of deceiving the electorate for their votes and abandoning them thereafter. I hope that when eventually I determine by a considered examination and analysis of the facts and evidence the most corrupt of the two political parties, they will each accept my verdict without question since I have become their authority on this issue.
The 2024 elections are not going to take place in a vacuum. They are going to be informed by thirty years of electoral history under the 1992 Constitution. The Fourth Republican Constitution, 1992 underscores, like the three preceding Republican Constitutions, the sovereignty of the people as the foundation of the State. The citizen has since the 1969 Constitution been accorded a sovereign right to seek interpretation and enforcement of the provisions of the Constitution in the Supreme Court with guarantees of fundamental human rights and freedoms subject only to the provisions of the Constitution.
The facts, information and intelligence, and the available evidence demonstrate that the Special Prosecutor, William Kissi Agyebeng, is so desperate to protect the pervasive and endemic mismanagement, the culture of corruption, massive staff recruitment malpractices, and public procurement malpractices within the OSP by resorting to blackmailing the government with publications of former government appointees he is prosecuting to rally public support against possible impeachment for misconduct.
The cancer of a Special Prosecutor that has infected the OSP for the past two years cannot be allowed to metastasize to infect the healthy working relations between organic law enforcement, the citizen, and the administration of justice guaranteed under law. Consequently, patriotic citizens ought to be protecting the 1992 Constitution and the sanctity and independence of the judiciary by invoking the provisions of Section 15(3) of Act 959 for the removal of the Special Prosecutor from office.
Big Brother President Nana Akufo-Addo lied his way to the political office of President of Ghana to fight corruption only to supervise the most perceptually corrupt of all the Governments in Ghana in the Fourth Republic since 7 January 1993. The 1992 Constitution does not empower Big Brother President Nana Akufo-Addo to insist upon an investigation into a paltry 4 million Euros alleged Airbus SE-Ghana suspected corruption when he has pushed under the carpet the Gargantuan Agyapa Royalties Transactions procurement malpractices and corruption detailed in a 64-page report.
It is time to take seriously the warning about the intention of Nana Akufo-Addo to abuse the spirit of the 1992 Constitution so he can achieve an outcome at the 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections favourable to him as an insurance in his retirement. Ghana’s democracy, the rule of law and constitutionalism enshrined in the letter and the spirit of the 1992 Constitution must be defended by all patriotic citizens even if the heavens fall.
Mahamudu Bawumia is a safe pair of hands to give Nana Akufo-Addo the third term in office he seeks using a surrogate. Whether Nana Akufo-Addo will succeed in actualizing his long game with Mahamudu Bawumia at the 2024 elections will unfold after his nomination on 4 November 2023. Nature’s justice will ultimately determine the final verdict.
I contend that the 26 August 2023 special regional congress and presidential primaries have been pre-programmed in such a way that the margin of victory will be overwhelming for Dr. Bawumia and constitute an invitation to the delegates at the 4 November 2023 election to return him without the necessity for a runoff and the possibility for any ganging up as projected by some of the candidates. It was pre-programmed as a coronation with the trappings of a democratic contest.
I have lived under threats of assassination, armed robbery, and the burning of my house, from this regime since 16 November 2020. The late Victor Newman aborted discussions to assassinate me then. These threats intensify any time I exercise my right to defend the Constitution just as I did on 28 June 2023 and 30 June 2023. There was a covert attack on my residence at dawn on Monday 3 July 2023. President Nana Akufo-Addo, is ultimately responsible for anything violent that befalls me or my residence. I shall not back down from defending the 1992 Constitution. No Ghanaian patriot must be cowed by threats of those violating the Constitution.
The Government’s attempt to escape investigation for suspected corruption arising from the Gold Mafia documentary and confessions of Alistair Mathias, the President’s good friend, through the side door of a purported threat of a defamation action is arbitrary, lacks candor, and constitutes a blatant abuse of the powers of Government under the Constitution. It is too late in the day for the President to be allowed to run away from consequences of his own endorsement of the “Anas Principle” [you may never know that the person you are giving the bribe to or receiving it from may be an undercover agent]. Nana Addo is now reaping what he sowed.
Nana Akufo-Addo’s long game was borne out of an agenda he conceived after his narrow defeat at the 2008 presidential elections with Dr. Bawumia as his running mate, and the lack of a long game by Mr. J. A. Kufour to have ensured a victorious outcome at all costs. Never again must that happen under Nana Akufo-Addo’s watch as President of Ghana. While Kufour exhibited better traits of a constitutionalist and democrat during his tenure as President, Nana Akufo-Addo has shown himself to be an autocrat working with the letter of the Constitution but subverting its spirit and core structural principles or doctrines.
President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, did not deny being Alistair Mathias’ friend in his response to Al Jazeera’s request for his comments. The argument that Nana Addo could not have been Mathias’ lawyer when the president himself does not remember, is spurious and diversionary. Nana Addo is an admitted friend of the alleged kingpin gold smuggler and money launderer for gold deals. Period! Befriending a criminal gang member and/or financial architects is typical of previous conduct of the President of Ghana.
Nana Akufo-Addo would not have abused the spirit of Chapter Seven (7) of the 1992 Constitution on the sanctity of the right to vote and the Electoral Commission if We the People had not in the past five and half years condoned the Government’s several abuses of power and impunity. By failing to act to defend our Constitution, we emboldened him to ignore the views of the majority of citizens and to do as he pleases. But all is not lost. Nature has its own way of dispensing justice to humanity
This examination and analysis of the “Galamsey Economy” documentary provide citizens with the materials to see beyond the stunts and swindles that the Presidency, and Anas Aremeyaw Anas with his Tiger Eye PI, tried to pull over the public, and reveals the motives of political self-interest underpinning each stunt and hoax undertaken by them. Citizens are also provided with the materials with which to have the courage to defend and protect the 1992 Constitution from scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, like the President and the Vice President who lied their way to the Presidency only to strain a gnat but swallow a camel.
Elected members of parliament are sacrificing the national good of our country for their personal selfishness and partisan interest, contravening the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution. Their actions are the sole reason why for some time now, “Everyday things are getting worse” for the economic and social survival of ordinary Ghanaians. The selfish economic and political power motives underpinning the divergent positions and tactics that both sides of the House used to remove two ministers from office demonstrate to Ghanaians that these members of parliament cannot be relied upon to fight for what our citizens need.
Mr. President, in these difficult economic times you have brought upon the nation of Ghana, you cannot lead the resolution, because you are an inherent part of the problem. Our people are suffering under your failed and mismanaged policies and stewardship, and your November 2022 Budget is going to impose further austerity upon Ghanaians. Listen closely to the echoes of history and avoid replaying the discordant notes of past Governments that cost this nation dearly – for as Mark Twain once said: “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme”.
This year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to be the excuse for Ghanaians being asked to tighten their belts while the political elites loosen their belts and feed fat on our sweat. We should not wait for the IMF to be used by the authors of our economic hardships to blackmail the nation and ram an austerity budget down our throats without any consultation for our inputs into and acceptance of the proposals. We have a duty to ask for transparency and accountability now.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has achieved finality in his deceptive long game with his recent national security apparatus appointments. If confirmed, these appointments will be a sign that Akufo-Addo has captured the National Security Secretariat and apparatus towards his electoral agenda for the 2024 parliamentary and presidential elections. While appearing to follow the letter of the law in making appointments to public office, the President’s long game substantively breaches the Constitution’s fundamental spirit of integrity, transparency, accountability, and merit – resulting in the actualization of a calculated and deliberate intention to undermine the 2024 electoral process. Ghana must always be put first.
The arrest and detention of Oliver Barker-Vormawor, the Convenor of #FixTheCountry, and the bail facilitation for Mr. Kwame Baffoe, the powerful Bono Regional Chairman of the governing political party, demonstrates the partiality with which the fundamental human rights and freedoms guaranteed to citizens might through the exercise of the investigatory and prosecutorial discretion in the system of criminal justice administration at the level of the executive branch of government has been wittingly or unwittingly abused in the matter of the “Kyei Mensah-Bonsu’s E-Levy cake for his 65th birthday” contrary to article 3(2) of the 1992 Constitution…