General News of Thursday, 19 February 2015

Source: The informer

Dirty plot against Baba Kamara falls flat

Attempts to get at President John Dramani Mahama in his latest shakeup at the Presidency with claims that there were issues bordering on the appointment of Alhaji Baba Kamara as National Security Advisor, because of his alleged involvement in the Mabey and Johnson bribery scandal that came to the fore in 2009, is simply not washing.

As it stands today, Alhaji Kamara has no issues at all, as far as that scandal was concerned.

The Informer, without any fear of contradiction, has it that, Alhaji Kamara has been cleared long ago and those making noise about his current appointment are just embarking on a wild goose chase.

The new National Security Advisor, and those who were mentioned in that scandal were all investigated by the police as they were made to write a statement to the police and were also questioned.

As a matter of fact, Alhaji Kamara, in particular, went through thorough investigations before being made to move to Nigeria as Ghana’s High Commissioner to that country with additional responsibility to Cameroun and Chad.

At the time, the late President, John Evans Atta Mills, made sure that Alhaji Kamara was cleared of all issues on the Mabey and Johnson scandal, before moving to Nigeria.

It was the same clearance that paved way for Dr. George Adjah Sipah Yankey to be appointed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a state institution, Ghana Gas Company.

Amazingly, those who are at the throat of the President have not taken the trouble to know what exactly transpired at the time the scandal broke out.

At the time, a British court had accused Alhaji Kamara, Dr. Yankey, Mr. Ato Quarshie and others of bribery-related activities, without inviting even one of them to appear before the court.

In between time, Ghana’s police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) also waded into the matter and conducted its own investigations.

The police CID took written statements from all those who were mentioned and did further investigation, but nothing incriminating was found against them.

Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Vitus Azeem, was one person who raised issues with the appointment of Alhaji Kamara as the National Security Advisor.

He accused the President of not doing due diligence before appointing the former Special Advisor to the President on Politics and Special Duties.

What is making political observers raise eyebrows is the fact that no such issues came up when the same Alhaji Kamara was appointed as Special Advisor to the President.

A Former Boss of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice - CHRAJ, Mr. Short, also jumped into the issue immediately Alhaji Kamara’s appointment became public; claiming that the matter has not been brought to a close.

Mr. Short’s position has fallen flat in the face of the available evidence as he was not in the know of what had transpired at CHRAJ and the fact that the Police also went ahead to investigate the matter.