Abuga Pele not a 'scapegoat'; 'I'm not happy' he is in jail - Kweku Baako

Seasoned journalist Kweku Baako has empathized with the former National Coordinator of the defunct Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Mr. Abuga Pele over the jail sentence slapped on him by the Financial and Economic Court Division of the Accra High Court last week.

The court, presided over by Justice Afia Asare-Botwe, sentenced Abuga Pele, a former National Coordinator of GYEEDA to 6 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of causing financial loss to the state.

He was sentenced together with a representative of the Goodwill International Group (GIG), Philip Akpeena Assibit who was also implicated in the GYEEDA scandal.

Mr. Assibit will be serving a 12-year jail term.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Kweku Baako expressed his sympathies saying he is not happy that Mr. Abuga Pele is to spend some years of his life in prison.

Alluding to his own experience in prison, Mr. Baako recounted that a day in prison is painful and so would not have wished for the GYEEDA National Coordinator and his accomplice Philip Akpeena Assibit, to go to prison.

“I’m not happy that they are in prison. I can never be happy. One day in prison is painful…The most painful experience I had in jail was the one month, not the 2 years; not the 7 months…To be honest, sentimentally from the humane point of view, emotionally I’m not happy”.

He also debunked claims that Mr. Abuga Pele may have been used as a scape goat.

Though he believed there are other people involved in the GYEEDA scandal who deserve to equally face full rigors of the law, Mr. Baako however emphasized that "if you look at the court (ruling) judgment, the facts and the law on which the facts were based to convict him, I have my doubts that he was a scapegoat. I have to be honest . . . When I look at the law the Judge relied on and the facts that he relied on within the context of offences that they were charged with, I’m convinced he was guilty".