President Mahama Must Clear His Name

And Not Just Nana Akufo-Addo, As Demanded By FGJ

Re: “A pressure group, Forum for Governance and Justice (FGJ) says the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo must speak and clear his name regarding an alleged bribery scandal related to judgment debt in 2005.” [By courtesy of Ghanaweb General News of Tuesday, 30 October 2012 captioned “FGJ charges Akufo-Addo to speak on bribery allegation”; Source: Kelvin Dartey]

I (the author of this write-up) strongly advise the pressure group (Forum for Governance and Justice {FGJ}) to muster the courage to advise their ‘Big Brother’ (HE John Dramani Mahama), in addition to advising Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, to “speak and clear his name regarding an alleged [corruption] scandal” relating to a Ghanaweb News of Wednesday, 24 October 2012 and sourced from AP News] ......which is being carried verbatim herein below for the sake the Forum for Governance and Justice (FGJ), whose very patriotic and duty-conscious members might have missed the “gargantuan” allegation made against their “Big Brother” (HE John Dramani Mahama) who occupies the august seat of Head of State of the Republic of Ghana. Beneath is the full text of the said quote that includes all paragraphs contained in the pair of quotation signs immediately below........

“Mahama's Swiss Bank Cash - 170 million dollars

A Transparency International Special Investigation report has indicted the Presidents of Zimbabwe, Congo DR and Ghana for stashing huge amounts of monies into foreign bank accounts in Switzerland and Luxembourg.

In the case of Ghana, the World Bank and IMF is currently investigating the current President of Ghana President John Dramani Mahama and his wife Mrs. Lordina Mahama for the embezzlement of 170 million dollars of loans and grants given to Ghana since 2010 and the deposit of these monies in bank accounts in Switzerland.

The report states that between 2010 and March 2012, the late President of Ghana, President John Mills who died in July 2012 wrote private letters to the World Bank and IMF Heads expressing concern about the conduct of his Vice President and his Minister of Finance in the negotiation of loans and validation of major project finances.

In one of these letters the late Ghanaian President lamented as to how Mr. John Mahama then Vice President refused to allow him to proofread or check documents and clashed with him when he raised objections.

World Bank officials working with IMF investigators started noticing huge discrepancies and gaps in Ghana’s loan payments and realized that there were irregular payments between March 2010 and June 2012 and that some payments were missing, after a forensic audit, 170 million dollars were traced to a Private Bank in Zurich, Switzerland called DZ Privatbank.

Though the bank invoked Swiss banking secrecy laws when asked to provide information, IMF investigators through electronic tracking found the accounts to be in the names of Mrs. Lordina Mahama, the President's wife and John Dramani Mahama.

These accounts were opened on their behalf by Credtio Privat Commercial, another bank. Why they used this arrangement is still a mystery.

Recently The World Bank President was said to have made his feelings known to Ghana’s President when he met him at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, forcing the Ghanaian President to make a public statement pleading with the world bank not to cut financial assistance to his country.

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, a close friend of the Ghanaian President has been secretly lobbying the World Bank to drop the case as its exposure could dent Mr. Mahama’s chances of winning elections scheduled for December this year.

Pierre Wimhoven is an investigative journalist affiliated with transparency international and has written books on corruption in Asia, Africa and is active in the setting up of transparent institutions around the world. He currently is a Managing Partner for Associated Press News based in Zurich, Switzerland.”[End of quote; {by courtesy of Ghanaweb General News of Wednesday, 24 October 2012 of above caption; Source: AP News}]

Going by the use of allegations that have not been confirmed in the law courts in Ghana or elsewhere in the world, [but which Ghanaians use with impunity], I can say that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Akuffo-Addo is undoubtedly CORRUPT. And going by the same use of allegations that have not been proved in the law courts in Ghana or elsewhere in the world, I can also say that HE John Dramani Mahama is similarly CORRUPT. *However, going by the principle of relativity, I can categorically say that HE John Dramani Mahama is MORE CORRUPT, and by far, than Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo. *170 Million Dollars is no small money to be allegedly stolen by one Ghanaian man and his Ghanaian wife. *The father of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart said, and rightly so, that if you owe two sums of debt and one is bigger than the other, you pay your bigger debt first before you pay your smaller one. It is because, I reckon, it is the bigger debt that can land you in jail. Going by this ‘commonsense’ logic of Okonkwo’s father, the Forum for Governance and Justice must “charge[s]” HE John Dramani Mahama to speak and clear his name and that of his wife on the allegation that he and his wife (Lordina) have stolen $170 million and saved it in a Swiss Bank with the help of an intermediary named in the allegation as “Credtio Privat Commercial”. CALLING THE CAT CRIMINAL, WHILE REFERRING TO THE TIGER AS A SAINT, IS THE BIGGEST ‘INTELLECTUAL JOKE’ ANY GROUP OF HUMAN BEINGS CAN CREATE.

Source: Otchere Darko