If They Don’t Kill You, They “Spoil” You!

Corrupt Officials in Ghana’s Public Service use not only the “death warrant” to “clear” those who try to stop them. They use another weapon called: “let us destroy him”. This is a character assassination technique used by them to keep their “interferers” out of their way. Read this fourth experience of Ampeh and see how desperate and dangerous criminals in the Public Service can be. [This fictionalised story of Ampeh is a true account of a real Ghanaian Public Office Holder.]

By Otchere Darko

After the death of Gyeabuor [who was allegedly killed through “drink poisoning” during a “night outing” with his aggrieved workmates], a few things happened concerning his colleague, Ampeh. Gyeabuor’s alleged killing shook Ampeh’s bones to their core and forced him to leave his station and return to university on a study leave. He needed time off work to “think”. So, he had gone to do a two-year course that would give him a second university-qualification. He did not think that the extra qualification would add anything substantial to the work he was doing; but he needed to leave, after the “shock” from the killing of Gyeabuor. While he was away, his vacant position was not filled. Perhaps, this was because his Ministry knew he was going away for only two years and would come back. Or perhaps, it was because his Ministry forgot to fill the vacancy. Or perhaps still, it was because they did not get anybody who wanted to go to a place where their colleague had allegedly been killed. Whatever the reason was, Ampeh was never replaced, despite the fact that his study leave was officially known and approved. As far as his workplace was concerned, the general feeling was that Ampeh had “run away”, out of fear. Many of them had felt relieved and very happy that he had left. He no longer was there to poke his bossy nose into their affairs. When months passed without him being replaced, his administrative roles were split up and shared among committees made up of senior members of staff drawn from different sections of the station.

Two years passed and he was still not back at post. Members of the newly created committees were happy. They enjoyed their new roles. Playing administrator in ones workplace was an experience that none would want to give up, after having got the chance already. None of them, in fact, believed that Ampeh would come back, anyway. This was the position until, out of the blue, the boss they did not expect returned one day. Following his return, there was a general feeling of shock and suppressed anger at the station, especially among the committee members. This was followed by months of wrangling over the resultant issue of “abolishing the committees and handing all administrative roles back to their official owner”. It took a little over one year, after his return, before Ampeh had his job back. A couple of months after that, there was a damning publication in a non conventional, but widely read news journal. The publication made numerous allegations of “misuse of office” and “misappropriation of public funds” against Ampeh. That was a man who had only just taken over his job, after returning to post from a two-year official study leave. How could such a man “misuse his office” and “misappropriate funds” within two months of taking over? Or did the “misuse” and “misappropriation” refer to the period before he returned to the university? Surprisingly and worse of all, these allegations were published without the editor of the journal ringing him first to verify the accusations, or even to notify him about the intended publication. That was Ghana! Ampeh knew his legal rights; but he also knew the costs involved, if he chose to pursue those rights. Could he go to court? His answer was no, he could not. That was because he did not have the money to hire a lawyer to handle the case in court.

A few months after the publication of those false allegations, Ampeh was returning from town after an official business. As soon as his car reached the entrance gate leading to his workplace, the gateman quickly, and out of practice stopped him. “Stop, Massa,” Fuseni, the gateman, shouted; “plenty of soldiers with guns have come here in military vehicles. They are looking for you. Massa, make you go back to town and hide for some place until they leave”.

Ampeh was not a man who would run into hiding when he did not think he had done something wrong. He thanked Fuseni and drove inside. Many things went through his mind, as he drove from the gate to his office. However, the mind could still not settle on any particular reason for the soldiers’ coming. It was after he reached the Administration Block that the telephonist on duty briefed him about what had brought the soldiers to his station. A letter had been sent to “Castle” alleging that he, Ampeh, had abused his office. As he walked towards his office, he immediately remembered Kofi Sammy’s song: “Yennku wo, na yasee wo”. “They won’t kill you; instead, they’ll ‘spoil’ you.” Gyeabuor paid the price of standing up to “the evil ones” with his life; but he, Ampeh, was being made to pay the price with his ‘reputation’. For three months, the “platoon of soldiers” was at Ampeh’s workplace twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week, led by an Air-force Lieutenant.

“A person who has done nothing wrong does not fear when a policeman comes to his house,” the saying goes. Ampeh was 100% sure that he had done nothing wrong, so he was not frightened by the presence of the soldiers. It was only annoying and tiring for him to have several guns pointed at his nose daily for three months. The soldiers who were sent to investigate the allegations made against him were very meticulous with their work, though. Instead of taking him to barracks to drill him, as soldiers usually did, they chose to investigate every single allegation made on the two long foolscap sheets of paper sent to the Castle by whoever sent them. It was because of this meticulous way the soldiers did the investigation that kept them at Ampeh’s station for three full months. In the end, they found out that there was not a filament of truth in the allegations, and that Ampeh was hundred percent innocent. Four senior officers who shared and played part of the administrative roles of Ampeh while he was at the university on his two-year study leave were, instead, found to have abused their positions in the two-year interim, by squandering funds belonging to the establishment. And strangely too, it was discovered that it was these same four senior officers who sent the allegations for publication. The four senior officers were also the same people who later reported the [same] allegations to the Castle....... thinking that once allegations went to the Castle, they led to instant arrest and detention. In some sense, the four were right in thinking like that, because that was exactly what was happening then. In the case of Ampeh, however, the soldiers who were sent to his station investigated the allegations first, thanks to Ampeh’s luck. After the full investigation, he was exonerated from all the allegations. Nevertheless, the harm had already been done. He had had guns pointed at his nose everyday for three months. He was virtually under house arrest, because his Bungalow was under military guard everyday for three months; and, also, because everywhere he went he was followed by soldiers for three months. The news that Ampeh was in trouble, and under police arrest had also travelled fast and reached his hometown and that of his wife. Would he call that “an exoneration”? He, in fact, felt heavily “dented”, not “exonerated”.

That experience of Ampeh was similar to an earlier experience he had gained during the period of his National Service. He had been asked by the Accountant at that place to assist him in paying workers at the end of one particular month. The immediate boss under whom he did the National Service had agreed and allowed him to assist this Accountant. After completing the assigned help that day, Ampeh was told by the Accountant that there was a shortage of cash from the balance for the wages of the group of workers he paid; and, therefore, he was responsible. That meant he was being accused of having stolen the cash that was said to be “short”. Ampeh was defended, though, by his Boss who got so angry with the Accountant that he nearly exchanged blows with him. The Accountant was one of three Departmental Heads who had been investigated by his boss with his, Ampeh’s, help. The Accountant who paid all invoiced bills, together with a Storekeeper who received all supplies purchased by the station and a Head of Department of a user department that used a specified commodity were believed to be colluding to pay for goods that were never delivered but which were “invoiced” by a supplier who was an accomplice; and which “ghost goods” were “allegedly received” by the Storekeeper and “allegedly used” by the Departmental Head of the user department. Soon after Ampeh started his National Service, his boss used him to assist him with the checking of all purchases. He was detailed to see and certify all purchases delivered to the Storekeeper and to endorse all waybills and invoices before they could be paid by the Accountant. This role given to Ampeh dealt a big blow to the “colluders”. As a result, the “fake purchases” and “fake invoicing” ceased. The colluders, however, blamed Ampeh and nursed him a big drudge. The clique believed it was Ampeh who had introduced the new system to their station. Accordingly, they were secretly furious with him. It was this that led the Accountant to “frame” him. Of course, his boss had saved him then; but he, Ampeh, knew that the damage had already been done to him. News had already gone around alleging that he had stolen part of the wages of the workers he was paying. He had then just married his wife and his in-laws had all heard the rumour. As to what extent they and others believed it, there was no way Ampeh could tell. Not knowing how people perceived him was part of the pain he felt within him as a result of the “framing” of him during his National Service.

Two experiences, one motive....... “let us destroy him”. Okukuseku’s “Yenku wo, na yasee wo” could not better describe the situation Ampeh found himself, “not killed but destroyed”. Destruction was, to him, as bad as death. Whether physically, spiritually, or psychologically, the hurt to the “victim destroyed” through false allegations made against him by those who hate him is as painfully bad as the loss of a “victim killed” by those who hate him. This “let us destroy him” is another device used by corrupt officials in our public and civil services to eliminate, weaken, or intimidate those who try to stop them from abusing their offices. *Ghanaians who believe in, and cherish honesty and probity must continue to oppose and fight corruption in Ghana’s Public Service, despite this intimidatory tactics used by corrupt public officials. Corrupt people should not triumph! *[This is part of the writer’s campaign against corruption in Ghana].

Source: Otchere Darko; [This writer is a centrist, semi-liberalist, pragmatist, and an advocate for “inter-ethnic cooperation and unity”. He is an anti-corruption campaigner and a community-based development protagonist. He opposes the negative, corrupt, and domineering politics of NDC and NPP and actively campaigns for the development and strengthening of “third parties”. He is against “a two-party only” system of democracy {in Ghana}....... which, in practice, is what we have today.]