Akanjoleur Whittal And CHRAJ Are Damaged Goods

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

February 12, 2017

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

The announcement by the Mahama-appointed Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr. Joseph Akanjoleur Whittal, that his branch of the judicial arm of the government would be ready to step in and thoroughly investigate bribery charges brought against the Minister of Energy, Mr. Boakye Agyarko, by Mr. Mahama Ayariga, the former Minister for the Environment, Science and Technology, should the Speaker of Parliament and our legislators fail to do, left me scratching my head with the sort of wistfulness traditionally associated with Kwaku Ananse, of Akan folktale infamy (See “We’ll Step in if Parliament Fails to Investigate Ayariga Bribery Claim – CHRAJ” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/31/17).

I scratched my head precisely because the professional credibility of the CHRAJ Commissioner continues to be held suspect, in the wake of the incongruent conclusions reached in his investigation of then-President John Dramani Mahama’s decision to willfully and criminally use his official position as Vice-President, under the tenure of then-President John Evans Atta-Mills, late, to receive a Ford Expedition SUV-model vehicle estimated to be worth some $ 100,000 at the time, from Mr.Gibril (Djibril) Kanazoe, a Burkinabe contractor, who had been offered a contractual deal by the Mills government. Mr. Kanazoe would later be offered an even more generous contractual deal when his payola buddy became the substantive President of Ghana, in the wake of the passing of President Atta-Mills.

Until Mr. Akanjoleur Whittal took over the investigation of what became popularly and humorously known as Affair Kanazoe/Payola Kanazoe, the CHRAJ boss had been performing in an acting position for more than one year, after the last CHRAJ Commissioner, Ms. Vivian Lamptey, appointed by President Mills, a man whom the then-Vice-President Mahama was widely known to have had a frigid relationship, was sacked for profligate misappropriation of the CHRAJ’s budget for her personal lavish lifestyle. Mr. Whittal’s promotion and permanent naming as substantive CHRAJ Commissioner, coming days before President Mahama’s official exit from the Flagstaff House and shortly after a butt-naked Mr. Mahama had been curiously exonerated from charges of bribery and corruption, raised a massive wave of public anger and suspicion.

Mr. Akanjoleur Whittal’s exoneration of President Mahama was both “curious” and “suspicious” because the then-acting CHRAJ boss had reached the initial logical conclusion that, indeed, the then-Vice President Mahama had used his official position to illegally acquire a vehicular or movable property for his personal gain and use but in the name of the citizens of Ghana. The aforesaid property had also been cleared in the name of a presidential aide, rather than the Government of Ghana, as is common in such instances of payola reception. Nevertheless, Mr. Akanjoleur Whittal found absolutely nothing wrong or illegal, let alone criminal, about this racket. And this is the man in whom the Ghanaian people are supposed to confidently entrust their faith to thoroughly investigate and draw the most logical conclusions about the scandalous charges of bribery that have rocked the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC).

As of this writing, not surprisingly, the voice of the man who made the charges against Mr. Joseph Osei-’Wusu, the PAC Chairman, and Mr. Boakye Agyarko, among a couple of others, had allegedly been caught on audiotape soliciting bribe money from an unidentified businessman seeking a contractual deal with the erstwhile Mahama government. I would rather have the CHRAJ boss first investigate the Ayariga Payolagate and see if Mr. Akanjoleur Whittal is capable of “normal” logic before having him presume to be capable of investigating the PAC Affair and reach the most logical conclusions this time around. We must also significantly note that in the matter of the Ford Expedition Payola Affair, even Justice Emile Short, the first CHRAJ boss, had his own grave misgivings about the moral, cognitive and logical integrity of his successor.

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