Accra, Jan. 15, GNA - Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, former First Lady, on Thursday said her image as well as her co-accused in the case against them in the divestiture of the Nsawam Cannery were "battered beyond recognition" during the trial which has been abandoned by the former government.

"My reputation amongst my peers (has been) sullied and my family abused both locally and internationally because many were convinced their mum was a criminal," she said in a statement after the Accra Fast Track High Court struck out charges of theft, fraud and conspiracy to defraud the state brought against them three years ago. Mr Emmanuel Agbodo, Mr Thomas Benson Owusu, Mr Kwame Peprah and Ms Sherry Aryitey who were also facing similar charges have also had their charges dropped.

Nana Konadu said her understanding was that former President John Agyekum Kufuor gave the order for the discontinuation of the case on the eve of his departure from office.

She said: "The purchase of Nsawam Cannery by Caridem, which was the transaction in question, was executed without any element of criminality and my colleagues and I always wondered how the state expected to prove its case against us."

She said a proper bidding process was put in place for the sale and Caridem won through due process because it was the highest bidder. Nana Konadu said the World Bank supervised the entire bidding process, so it was a huge shock to them when the NPP government decided to prosecute and persecute them over a process that was already 10 years old.

She said having purchased the Nsawam Cannery, Caridem sought assistance from major financiers some of whom had done due diligence and were on the verge of making payments for the factory to resume operations.

"These institutions withdrew their support soon after 30 charges were preferred against us over a purported discovery of major discrepancies in the sale of the cannery," she said. "I wonder on what basis John Kufuor decided to discontinue the case on his last day in office. This same man was the initiator of court proceedings against us but on his departure from office he chose to score cheap and shameless political points with my fundamental human rights as if he owned my life," Nana Konadu added.

She said at some point during the process they were resigned to their fate "knowing that the powers that be had no plans of capitulating".

"Having excelled in ensuring that all cases against members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) led to imprisonment we were like lambs being led to the slaughter.

"We definitely were not expecting a fair judgement at the end of the day but are convinced that the case was withdrawn at the last minute because ex-President Kufuor having failed to perpetuate his party's stay in power and knowing that he will be exposed if the case continued under this government decided to discontinue the case."

Nana Konadu said "millions of dollars had gone down the drain as we defended ourselves in court while the project was put on hold; the taxpayers' money had been wasted pursuing this exercise in futility". Nana Konadu said, had it been another government the previous Attorney General would probably have been prosecuted for wilfully causing financial loss to the state.

She said their legal team had been asked to prepare a detailed report for the general public "to appreciate the disdain the previous government had for our liberties and its quest to tarnish our reputations at whatever cost".

"I am not discounting the possibility of bringing charges against Kufuor and all those who individually and collectively colluded to persecute us, abuse our fundamental human rights, destroy our hard won reputations and lose us potential revenue from the operation of the cannery," she added. 15 Jan. 09