Free Tsatsu campaign condemns NPP statement

Accra, Sept 2, GNA - The Free Tsatsu Campaign (FTC), a pressure group seeking the release from jail of Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has said having jailed an innocent man, the government is seeking to justify its actions by inventing and peddling falsehood.

This was in reaction to a statement it said Nana Ohene Ntow, General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), made at a rally at Bukom Square on Friday that Tsikata was given resources for oil exploration but he used the money for banana exploration and for telephone.

"This is untrue and mischievous. Tsatsu was neither charged for nor convicted of spending money on banana cultivation or telephones,'' FTC said in a statement signed by Mr kyeretwie Opoku, a member of the movement.

The statement said the mention of "telephone'' must have been in reference to the investment in WESTEL that the government recently sold for over one hundred million dollars.

It said the establishment of WESTEL was part of investments in infrastructure for the development of hydrocarbon resources and that the manner in which the NPP referred to this important national asset demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge about the oil industry and dishonesty.

The statement said in making this statement publicly on the same political platform as Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the NPP presidential aspirant who was the Attorney General at the time Tsatsu was charged and who led the initial prosecution, the NPP has once again confirmed that it took a political decision to jail an innocent person using the instrumentality of the judiciary.