Shut up, we are taking you to court -AG to NPP

By Livingstone Pay Charlie

Attorney-General, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, says New Patriotic Party (NPP) elements must shut up, go to court and defend themselves rather than holding “useless press conferences”.

“Were they not the same people saying ‘take us to court?’ I am now taking you to court. So shut up!” she said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Post. Ever since the Attorney-General began filing criminal charges against former government functionaries, it has been the stock-in-trade of the NPP and their leaders to hold press encounters where they virtually question the court processes. Betty Mould-Iddrisu told this reporter that the NPP chaps who claim to be legal luminaries should go to court and do the proper thing.

“Court processes are not contested in the media? Those things are supposed to be done in court after appropriate applications are filed,” she observed. “They should know better,” she added.

So far, Betty Mould-Iddrisu has been able to work tirelessly to enable the government drag to court ex-government officials who had allegedly used their positions to engage in financial malfeasance leading to the loss of huge sums of money to the state. The cases include the liquidation of Ghana Airways to give way to Ghana International Airlines (GIA), the Ghana@50 mess, the murder of Ya Na Yakubu Andani II and Issa Mobila.

In the GIA trial, former Transport Minister, Richard Anane, former Greater Accra chairman of the NPP, Sammy Crabbe and others have been charged with various counts of wilfully causing financial loss to the state.

Immediately the charges were filed and the accused persons granted bail after court proceedings, the NPP held a press conference accusing the government of political witch-hunt. The NPP also described processes leading to their officials being charged as flawed. Chief Executive of the defunct Ghana@50 Secretariat, Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey and Kwadjo Mpiani, former Chief of Staff are also facing criminal charges over alleged reckless spending during the Ghana@50 celebrations.

Though they had hitherto made a lot of noise for them to be taken to court if they are corrupt, the NPP again went to the public court of arbitration immediately charges were filed against the major players in the Ghana@50 celebrations crying foul. This time, the NPP’s concern was that a white paper should have been issued on the Justice Douse Commission report.

They portrayed the myopic view point that the white paper would have offered the accused persons the opportunity to lodge an appeal at the Higher Courts. Atta Akyea who is the legal counsel for the suspected Ya Na killers also questioned the modus operandi the security agencies used in grabbing the suspects. He also claimed that the proper thing for the government to do in the case of the Ya Na was to go according to the recommendations of the Wuaku Commission. He forgot that the Commission was merely a forum for a grand cover-up.

Additionally, he could not recollect the shabby job done by his clans man, Nana Akuffo Addo, when he was Ghana’s Attorney-General. After the murder of the Ya Na, Nana Akufo Addo slapped wrong charges on the suspects who were arrested by the security agencies. The courts had no option than to acquit and discharge the suspects.

Betty Mould-Iddrisu told this reporter no amount of rubble-rousing by the NPP would distract her focus.

“We are focused on our job. Delivering social justice and protecting the public purse all for the rule of law to be firmly established is our goal. Nobody can stop that,” she reiterated.