I am absolutely not in anyway relishing the widely reported midnight or early-morning raiding of the private residence of my relative the former Minister for Finance, Mr. Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, by elements from the National Security Agency (NSA), allegedly dispatched by President John “I Have No Classmates in Ghana” Dramani Mahama and led by Mr. Richard Jakpa who, as this author vividly recalls, not very long ago, was fiercely locked in an anti-official-corrupted related battle with former Akufo-Addo-appointed Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Geoffrey Yeboah-Dame (See “Richard Jakpa Led Raid on Ken Ofori-Atta’s Residence – Majority Leader Confirms” Ghanaweb.com 2/13/25).
So, it is crystal clear here that the raid on Mr. Ofori-Atta’s private residence, in the upscale Cantonments area of the nation’s capital of Accra, was principally a veritable act of vendetta more than anything else. Now, what is most significant for each and every Ghanaian citizen to know is the fact of whether such a raid had been conducted by a warrant issued by the judge or the magistrate of a legitimately constituted court of the land. If not, then there is a real problem here and, as New Yorkers are wont to say, there must be hell to pay here.
In other words, the most fitting form of justiciable redress would be to have the culprits involved punished to the fullest extent prescribed by the laws of the land pertaining to such at once inescapable and untenable acts of state-sponsored terrorism. Which, of course, is absolutely in no way to preemptively shield the former Finance Minister from facing the full brunt of the consequences for criminally breaching the laws governing fiscally managerial discipline and/or efficiency in the use of money belonging to Ghanaian citizens and taxpayers, such as expenditures having to do with the globally infamous bungling of the otherwise socioeconomically and culturally laudable construction of the National Cathedral, originally announced to the nation as the pet private project of former President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who also happens to be cousins with Mr. Ofori-Atta.
It is high time the ever-revolving door of musical chairs vis-a-vis the wanton official creaming of Ghanaian taxpayers was definitively brought to a screeching halt. And if it, ironically, has to take the most thoroughgoing corrupt Ghanaian leader and/or politician to bring this about – at least in the quite authoritative opinion of the late former President Jeremiah “Jerry” John Rawlings, the globally acclaimed Founding-Father of the National Democratic Congress – to bring this about, then so be it.
The previous twice, consecutively elected Akufo-Addo-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had a most auspicious opportunity and the massive support and the goodwill of the Ghanaian people to totally and effectively make official corruption a veritable relic of the past and, instead, imperiously chose to do what Americans hereabouts call “Business As Usual.” So, in short, if a delusively self-proclaimed “Born Again” President John “I Have No Classmates in Ghana” Dramani Mahama has decided to refreshingly indemnify himself by seemingly more seriously taking up the gauntlet vis-a-vis the official corruption battle by promising to bring it to some appreciable level of abatement, then we say with gusto that, by all means, Yagbowura Kwame Gonja ought to be given a hearing and all the necessary support and the encouragement that it will take to bring the seemingly intractable spate of official corruption to a much more manageable and a relatively affordable level of tolerance.
Which, of course, is absolutely in no way to imply that some form or forms of official corruption are far more tolerable than others. Rather, it is simply and practically reasonable to admit of the most obvious: which is that, in the evergreen words of The John-The-Baptist of Age-Old Official Corruption of both Asante Atwima-Nwabiagya and our beloved Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana at large – aka former President John “The Gentle Giant” Agyekum-Kufuor – corruption is as ineradicably human as the Biblical Mythology of Adam and Eve (or Hawa), and can only be marginally and tolerably managed. I hope I am making at least a diddly modicum of sense here.
On the foregoing subject, we are also counting on a “Politically Born-Again” Kwame Moscow to promptly and immediately call for the retrieval of the self-betrayed and criminally thievish official loot by Ms. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, the former Akufo-Addo-appointed Minister for Sanitation, Housing and Water Resources, to return the excess of $5 million (USD) to where it truly belongs, namely, our National Treasury. It was outrageous enough for Ms. Dapaah, an Agyekum-Kufuor relative, to have shameless exposed herself and her loot to unsolicited public attention and scrutiny, but even more criminally scandalous and unpardonable for an “incorruptible” President Akufo-Addo to have equally shamelessly and cavalierly pretended as if this Robber-Baroness was, somehow, constitutionally inalienably entitled to the same.
Not very long ago, for example, Yours Truly chanced across a news report in which a concerned Ghanaian citizen who had allegedly made some enquiries hereabouts the United States of America, was alleged to have been informed by some officials of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) that Ms. Dapaah was a member of a money-laundering racket of some thoroughgoing corrupt Ghanaian politicians. Now, whatever the real case scenario may be, it goes without saying that Mr. William Kissi Agyebeng, the Akufo-Addo-appointed Independent Special Prosecutor, ought to be afforded all the requisite assistance and material support that he needs by the Mahama government to expeditiously facilitate its publicly declared steely determination to stamp out at the least the most obvious and egregious forms of official corruption in the country.
The former Finance Minister is also accused of causing serious financial loss to the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Ghana at both the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and some institutional establishment called Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML). What is significant to note here is the imperative need for the impartial application of the due process of the legal and the judicial instruments. Anything short of the preceding will be tantamount to criminal persecution and harassment, elements and policies that are decidedly ultra vires and downright antithetical to the civilized rule of law and order.
It is, however, not clear exactly what the Independent Special Prosecutor means, when Mr. William Kissi-Agyebeng rather cynically and venomously asserts that: “The reported raid at Ken Ofori-Atta’s residence was orchestrated with the intent to create disaffection for the OSP and obstruct the ongoing investigations.” Does the Cornell University Law School Graduate mean that a clearly evidently Mr. Richard Jakpa, an archnemesis of the former Akufo-Addo regime, would actually lead an allegedly “unauthorized” raid of the the Cantonments private residence of Mr. Ofori-Atta, while the owner of the house or property was outside the country, allegedly seeking medical treatment, with the express objective of shielding one of his most inveterate enemies from facing the full brunt of the cacophonic music of the law?
If, indeed, Mr. Kissi-Agyebeng has any foolproof “intelligence that indicates [that] the purported raid on Ofori-Atta’s residence was staged or, at best, [was] an impostor[sic] action intended to discredit the OSP and derail the investigation,” then who is this impostor who so weirdly appears to be so fiercely intent on sabotaging President Mahama’s official anti-corruption fight? An NPP mole among the fold of the NDC, perhaps? And just precisely why would Mr. Mahama Ayariga, the National Democratic Congress’ Parliamentary Majority Caucus’ Leader take to the august floor of the House to profusely apologize for the Richard Jakpa-led raid to both the members of the Ofori-Atta Clan and the nation at large? Would Yours Truly be right here to suggest that the Special Prosecutor may very well be strung up high on some barbiturates?
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
February 14, 2025
E-mail: [email protected]
