NCA case: Baba Kamara should have been charged – Deputy Housing Minister

Deputy Minister of Works and Housing, Eugene Boakye Antwi is of the firm belief that a former national security advisor in the erstwhile Mahama administration should have also been brought to book in the NCA trial which Tuesday, saw the conviction of some 3 former appointees

According to Mr Boakye Antwi, Alhaji Baba Kamara who at the time played a supervisory role for the installation of a cyber-security equipment in his house has been left off the hook instead of being made to face trial together with the jailed officials.

Though Eugene Boakye Antwi ascribes to the fact that the rule of law has prevailed in the case, he still maintains there is still more to the story than meets the eye.

While expressing dissenting thoughts about the Supreme Court ruling, the MP for Subin Constituency questioned why Baba Kamara after implicating himself in the scandal by running a test on a national cyber-security equipment in his house, was left unscathed in the judicial process.

“This is a clear case of a president appointing you to a position of trust…and you end up benefitting from that position… Five persons were initially sent to court, two were acquitted and three have been convicted, meaning that the wheels of justice were seen to be working…” he said in reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on Good Morning Ghana, Wednesday, May 13, 2020.

In quoting parts of a statement by the third accused person, Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, which in his view, implicated Alhaji Baba Kamara he said; “you know the most serious one? One page fourteen, the third person Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman he said and I read; “when the equipment was cleared and sent to the house of Baba Kamara for installation by six Israelis, the equipment after its installation was confirmed to him by A1 (Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie), that it was successful.” ...Why was it sent to the house of Baba Kamara if it’s a national asset.”

Adding that; “There’s more to this story than meets the eye and this is where Ghanaians must be asking serious questions…because it’s wrong and we must say it to Baba Kamara that he acted irresponsibly… what we can say as people with trained minds is that sometimes the lawyers too get it wrong and wrong big time because this thing is self-incriminating and Baba Kamara should have been part of the people who were sent to court. Why do you charge the subordinate and leave him off the hook…I want to know why Baba Kamara wasn’t charged…”

The trial of the five accused persons, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, the former Board Chair of the National Communication Authority (NCA); William Tetteh Tevie, former Director-General of the NCA; Nana Owusu Ensaw, a former board member; Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, a former Deputy National Security Coordinator, and a businessman, George Derek Oppong, begun on the 16th of January 2018 and ended on 10th of March 2020.

Subsequent in the trial, two persons were acquitted while three - Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, William Tetteh Tevie, Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman – were found guilty of conspiratorial drill to cause financial loss to the State and handed a 16-year jail term.