Stop persecuting NDC functionaries — Mills

FORMER Vice-President, Prof J. E. A. Mills, has decried the use of the law courts to persecute certain individuals for their involvement in the past government or their association with the NDC, saying it is an affront to democracy.

“Some of us are now wondering whether we are sincere with our utterances about human rights”, he said.

Prof Mills, who was the guest on a popular weekly Ghana Television Programme, Kweku-One- On-One, however, said that he has confidence in the judiciary and believes that public office holders who abuse their office should be held accountable for their misconduct “if there is enough evidence” of impropriety against them.

He said certain issues which the government is using to scandalise certain former state functionaries are matters which could have been resolved during the transition period, by the joint transitional teams, if officials of the new government had spent time to study and discuss the handing over notes from their predecessors.

“Some are suffering today or being asked to go on leave because of their perceived relationship with the NDC, and it is wrong to target people in that manner,” he said.

Prof Mills cited an instance in which a head of a public institution was driven out of an international function held recently in Accra, although it was open to the public “just because he was being investigated at the time and perceived to be an associate of the NDC”.

The former Vice-President said the government needs to be circumspect with the use of the courts against those it perceives as its political opponents because there is no mechanism for compensating them if they are found to be innocent in the long run.

Prof Mills said that the NDC has laid the foundation for the future growth of the economy, adding that the party will always stand for the development of the ordinary person.

He conceded that the NDC could have done better on the media front, saying “we have learnt our lessons in that respect”.

Asked if he has plans to be the party’s flagbearer in the next general elections, Prof Mills said it is pre-mature to talk about that.

“I see politics as an opportunity to serve one’s country. I do not have an inordinate ambition to be President or Vice President,” he said.