Kufuor’s government was determined to jail me at all cost – Tsatsu Tsikata

Tsatsu Tsikata, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) says he was not surprised by the efforts of the Kufuor government to have him jailed.

According to him, right from the onset, there was a plot to undo the gains made by the Rawlings administration in the oil and gas field and because he served as the head of the commission, he knew his persecution was only a matter of time.

Tsatsu, who was speaking on the KSM show on Pan African TV, stated that there was a ‘determination’ by the Kufuor government to find fault with how Rawlings had handled the GNPC and he knew it would come down to him.

"I had been involved in GNPC under President Rawlings and I was seen as someone close to Rawlings. A lot of credit has to be given to his interest at the time in creating GNPC."

“Unfortunately in this country, when a new government came, they wanted to throw overboard the things that he had done. I had headed GNPC during that time and I became a target. They had to find something. I could see by the beginning of 2001, the determination, by hook or crook to find something against me. That is what led to all these interesting cases against me, he said.

Tsatsu also spoke about the court processes that led to him ending up at the Nsawam Prison.

“I went to the Supreme Court and the Fast Track Court was declared unconstitutional. They changed the panel and added two more panels to form the review. In those days, there were people criticizing the judges' decision in my favour. You should go and listen to what President Akufo-Addo who was the Attorney-General then said about the judges. There was a determination to overturn that decision. Justice Afreh was appointed, another judge was also appointed so from a 5-4 in my favour it became 6-5 against me,” he said.

It will be recalled that Tsatsu Tsikata was jailed in 2008 for wilfully causing financial loss to the state when he was the head of the GNPC.

Eight years on, the Court of Appeal ruled that the High Court unjustly jailed Mr Tsikata and subsequently cleared him of any wrongdoing.