Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary: Nana Akufo-Addo reaps what he sowed

“But in these cases,

we still have judgement here; that we but teach

Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return

To plague the inventor; this even-handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice

To our own lips….” – Macbeth.

The President of Ghana’s letter with reference number OPS/2G4/23/401 to Al Jazeera, dated 25 April 2023 and purposefully leaked to the media for publication exhibits lack of integrity, seriousness, and consistency in its content within the context of previous undertakings and promises to Ghanaians by the President before and after he assumed office as president. A leader must keep his promises and show exemplary leadership.

Nana Akufo-Addo, while he was courting the Presidency of Ghana, swore belief and fidelity to the “Anas Principle”. The reader can view and listen to his own words on YouTube: Akufo-Addo promised to use Anas Principle to fight corruption. - YouTube. Nana Akufo-Addo had earlier also said while on a campaign tour of the United States of America at a town hall meeting with Ghanaians in Houston, Texas, on Saturday 4 February 2012, inter alia, that:

“My government would institutionalise what I call the Anas principle, to create a new culture of fear for corrupt practices. We must infest the disciples of corruption with paranoia, in that you may never know that the person you are giving the bribe to or receiving it from may be an undercover agent….

I intend to establish a special anti-corruption squad, made up of some of our best young talents, well-trained, well-paid, well-disciplined, with the licence to root out corruption from every nook and cranny of our public life. I know this may be controversial but I am resolute in my conviction to remove the hold that corruption has on our institutions and our development.

Serious problems call for serious solutions. I will introduce stiffer punishments for corruption to make the theft of state funds more expensive for the criminal than the stealing of a goat.”

There is an examination and analysis of Nana Addo’s 2012 tour of the USA, as reported by the Daily Guide Africa on 9 February 2012, on Leadership Paralysis, Eiu Analysis, And The Anas Principle Against Corruption | News Ghana.

One would have thought that the Al Jazeera undercover investigators emulated the President of Ghana’s oath and fidelity to fight corruption using the “Anas Principle” in unveiling the suspected corruption disclosed by the members of the Gold Mafia, whose stories are contained in the Al Jazeera documentaries involving African Presidents, and which incidentally included Nana Addo.

One would also have, therefore, thought that the President of Ghana, who like Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion, would allow the Special Prosecutor to exercise his powers to investigate the allegations contained in the Al Jazeera undercover investigation documentary as I did in the Agyapa Royalties Transactions scam.

As things stand now, the President appears to be preempting the likely investigation by a committed and dutiful Special Prosecutor to investigate the contents of the undercover investigative documentary for corruption and/or corruption-related offences against his government.

The President’s conduct in attempting to preempt a corruption investigation could also be due to the fact that he is assured that the Special Prosecutor is a mere poodle looking for the low hanging fruits, who will allow the President to pretend to pursue his own possible cover-ups with the letters of 11 April 2023 and 25 April 2023 from his office to Al Jazeera. Where a suspected crime is a felony, and also gives rise to a civil remedy at the same time, the crime must be investigated and possibly prosecuted first, in my understanding of the law.

Nature dictated my resignation as the Special Prosecutor on account of the cover-up the President wanted me to condone in the Agyapa Royalties Transaction investigation, otherwise, I would have been in trouble again. I definitely would have begun investigations into these serious allegations of suspected corruption and/or corruption-related offences against the Government contained in the Al Jazeera documentary by now.

Now to the substance of the letters on the Al Jazeera undercover documentary that has given rise to this discourse. Al Jazeera was right to have stated that the President of Ghana’s response to its request for comments on the completed undercover investigation was that: "President Akufo-Addo of Ghana told us that he had no recollection of acting as a lawyer for Alistair Mathias or his company."

As a result of my examination and analysis of the President’s response to Al Jazeera, his non-denial that Mr. Alistair Mathias is his good friend, efforts by his underlings to deceive Ghanaians with tweets and spurious rationalizations in the media, and my demand for accountability, the Government wrote the letter with reference number OPS/2G4/23/401 dated 25 April 2025 to Al Jazeera to demonstrate that the underlings were acting upon the instructions of the President.

While the Office of the President’s letter under reference signed by Nana Bediatu Asante, the Secretary to the President and another of the President’s cousins, refers to Al Jazeera’s letter of 2 April 2023 which was received on 6 April 2023, and a reply to this letter dated 11 April 2023 by the Legal Counsel to the President, Mr. Kow Abaka Essuman, acting on the instructions of the President, none of those letters was exhibited or made available to the public for an accountable and transparent evaluation.

The President’s letter of 25 April 2023, however, states the President’s alleged response to Al Jazeera as follows:

“The President had not been in practice since the year 2000 and the President had no recollection of acting as a lawyer, either personally or through his law firm, Messrs. Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co for a Mr. Alistair Mathias or his company, Guldrest Resources.”

The above rendition is not different from what Al Jazeera quoted as being the President’s response. The opacity of the Government prevents us from knowing the reference number and the real content of the President’s letter of response dated 11 April 2023 to enable further interrogation. But we are informed for the first time that in his letter of 11 April 2023 the President wrote that:

‘In the circumstances, further and better particulars were demanded from Al Jazeera to respond adequately to the allegations made in Al Jazeera’s letter. Al Jazeera was thus requested to provide information on the period for which the President allegedly provided legal representation to Mr. Alistair Mathias or his company, Guldrest Resources.

Al Jazeera was requested to provide details of the “USD 100 million tender for state infrastructure” allegedly given to Mr. Alistair Mathias, which he constructed and kept a percentage in offshore accounts as stated in the letter as well as information on how the President personally benefitted unlawfully from the alleged “USD 100 million tenders for state infrastructure.”’

Any reasonable person reading the above quoted third paragraph of the President’s letter to Al Jazeera dated 25 April 2023 cannot avoid the understanding that the second and third sentences in that paragraph were mere expatiations on the first sentence that was what was really conveyed in the earlier letter dated 11 April 2023.

The operative words that: “Al Jazeera was thus requested to provide …” leaves one with this understanding. This explains why an accountable and transparent Government would have put all the cards on the table and not appear to be playing with the minds of the citizen with ambiguous references to letters and statements not subject to verification. The mandate to show integrity and leadership are imperative on such occasions.

The President’s letter of 25 April 2023 was written after the fourth series in a documentary of undercover investigations were aired to the world. The President is deemed to have viewed the fourth series of the documentary particularly in which Alistair Mathias made statements touching and concerning his relationship with the President of Ghana.

The further and better particulars demanded by the President in his letter dated 25 April 2023 had already been made available to the whole world by the airing of the documentary. Other African Presidents were also damned by the accounts of various Gold Mafia members and operatives.

The alleged defamatory statements made against all the African Presidents including the President of Ghana were made by members of the Gold Mafia and their operatives who bear prime responsibility for those alleged defamatory statements. As I stated in my discourse dated 24 April 2023, I am yet to read a categorical denial that the President is not a good friend of Alistair Mathias or that he does not know Mr. Mathias and has never met him.

Paul Adom-Otchere’s attempted Goebbels-like propaganda on behalf of the President, which roped in his protégée on the Supreme Court, leaves a lot of unanswered questions as to the friendship of the President with Mr. Mathias. That explains my characterization of Paul Adom-Otchere’s propaganda on Metro TV Good Evening Ghana on 18 April 2023 as pernicious in the circumstances.

Al Jazeera never said that the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a good friend of Alistair Mathias. Mr. Mathias volunteered that information to the undercover investigators. Whatever other alleged defamatory statements that are on the documentary touching, affecting, and concerning any African President, including the President of Ghana, were made by the members of the Gold Mafia and their operatives to the undercover investigators.

With the publication of the fourth series of the documentary, - providing the further and better particulars demanded by the President - why is the President not directing his threats to exact consequences for alleged defamation to his good friend Alistair Mathias first instead of Al Jazeera? Scare Al Jazeera or mere propaganda?

I have grave doubts whether the President intended Al Jazeera to take his letter of 25 April 2023 seriously or it was written as a piece of propaganda to divert the minds of Ghanaian patriots from the seriousness of the suspected corruption allegations made by Alistair Mathias against the Government of Ghana.

The modus operandi of the President, since he assumed the reins of Government, convinces me that the President’s letter of 25 April 2023 is yet another deceptive propaganda ploy to allow the serious allegations of suspected corruption contained in the Gold Mafia documentary to be forgotten by the electorate.

The procedure followed in demanding a retraction and an apology from Al Jazeera for the allegedly defamatory statements also gives me worry as to the legality of the demand as having been made on behalf of the Republic of Ghana. Article 88(5) of the 1992 Constitution which is an entrenched provision mandatorily enjoins that:

“(5) The Attorney-General shall be responsible for the institution and conduct of all civil cases on behalf of the state; and all civil proceedings against the State shall be instituted against the Attorney-General as defendant.”

The President’s letter of 25 April 2023 is the normal letter the Attorney-General should be writing, if the Presidency seriously intends to preempt a Special Prosecutor corruption investigation and appear to pursue any alleged defamatory claims as put out to the public.

Why will the President dissipate the public purse by having multiple public officers write letters to Al Jazeera instead of Alistair Mathias if he seriously intends to ultimately instruct the Attorney-General to institute formal civil action against Al Jazeera for defamation as the President cannot sue in his own name.

The 1992 Constitution protects Ghanaians against any form of abuse of power, lack of accountability, and transparency in the running of the affairs of the Republic of Ghana which is the collective patrimony of the sovereign people of Ghana. The presidential oath of office reinforces and affirms the demands and injunctions of the 1992 Constitution.

The attempt by the Government to escape an investigation for suspected corruption arising from the confessions of Alistair Mathias, the President’s good friend, contained in the Al Jazeera Gold Mafia documentary through the side door of a purported threat of an action for defamation is arbitrary, lacks candor, and constitutes a blatant abuse of the powers of Government under the Constitution.

It is too late in the day for the President to be allowed to run away from the consequences of his own endorsement of the “Anas Principle”. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Nana Addo is reaping what he sowed by championing the “Anas Principle”: he must with exemplary dignity and integrity submit his Government to an anti- corruption investigation first. Patriotic Ghanaians, let all of us across political party divides, defend the 1992 Constitution by making our voices heard. Ghana First!