Government scored an own goal in Nana Addo Great Cape fiasco- Baako

The Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper is mocking what government spokespersons describe as a sunlight campaign on judgment debt.

Malik Kweku Baako Jnr said the government “scored an own goal” in their futile attempt to rope in the New Patriotic Party flagbearer Nana Akufo-Addo in the controversial judgment debt saga.

On Monday, a team of government officials led by a deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa brought out two letters written by Nana Addo- one as Attorney General in 2001 and the other as NPP flagbearer in 2011- justifying the claims of a Swiss Company Great Cape for an outstanding settlement of over a million dollars.

The company had its contract to supply clinker to the government of Ghana in 1978 breached and has been asking for settlement.

In 1997, the then NDC government paid an amount of $927,000 in what was expected to be the final payment of the debt owed the company which had Dr Nat Tanoh as a local representative.

But Great Cape returned with a petition that the interest accrued on the debt was miscalculated and were still owed a little over a million dollars.

The petition was accepted by the Attorney General under the NDC led government in 1999 before it lost power. When the NPP assumed the reins of power, the then Attorney General Nana Addo scrutinsed the petition and agreed with his predecessor that the claims being made by the Swiss company was legitimate and wrote to the Finance Ministry to make payments.

Somehow, the monies were not paid during the eight year tenure of the NPP and the company is making demands of the Mills led government to pay. But the government said it had no documentation on the matter and asked the company to seek the authentication of the 2001 letter written by Nana Addo.

That informed Nana Addo's 2011 letter as flagbearer of the NPP.

Okudzeto Ablakwa noted at the press conference the NPP flagbearer cannot privately write letters asking for companies to be paid judgement debts only to publicly criticize the payment.

That he said was insincere and hypocritical.
On Joy FM and MultiTV Newsfile programme, Saturday, Felix Kwakye-Ofosu who is a member of the government communications minced no words in describing Nana Addo as being highly hypocritical on the issue of judgment debts.

According to him, Nana Addo and his running mate Dr Bawumia as well as other spokespersons of the NPP have created the impression that judgment debt payment is tantamount to corruption, vowing never to pay such debt if they are voted into power.

He argued they cannot wage this public campaign against payment of judgment debts only to come back “nicodemously” and “on the quiet” write letters asking for judgment debts to be paid to private companies.

He also found it disconcerting that the NPP will accuse government functionaries of fronting for private companies to dupe the country when their only crime was that they put out the bare facts of a case.

“Is it possible to set out the facts even if it supports a private company, without being labeled a PRO of the company," he stated.

He said the NPP must be fair and consistent in their approach in dealing with this judgment debt saga, insisting the only way forward is for the NPP to be non-partisan, critically analyse the issue and proffer solution.

But The New Crusading Guide newspaper editor Kweku Baako Jnr said the sunlight campaign by the government on judgement debt is only an exercise in deceit.

He said when a government declares it has a policy of transparency and full disclosure on judgment debts and yet it hides documents, then the integrity of the government has to be questioned.

Baako chronicled a litany of cases beginning with the AAL judgement debt saga, the Isofotone saga and the Great Cape saga in which he accused the government of being selective in the documents they brought to the public domain.

He said the sunlight campaign on judgment debt is not only a show of ineptitude but a failed attempt at fairness and justice by government.

He said no where did Nana Addo say he will not pay judgment debt; what he said, Baako posited was that Woyome will not happen under his watch.

He said government has succeeded in creating its own distortion and inviting people to celebrate in that distortion.

“I refuse to be part of the celebration of that distortion,” he noted.

He said for government to seek to indict Nana Addo on the Great Cape saga is nothing but to score an own goal.