Says Alhaji Dauda

Kintampo -- THE BRONG Ahafo Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Collins Dauda, on Friday accused President Kufuor and his government of pursuing injustice and nepotism in their stay in office for almost four years.

The chairman further accused the government of exhibiting inhuman and discriminatory attitude, particularly against some leaders of the NDC, without any justification and also drawing lines between the Akans and the Northerners.

Alhaji Dauda made these accusations at the inauguration of the NDC youth wing for the Kintampo North Constituency at Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region.

According to him, the government had, in almost four years, sacked and jailed NDC top men, especially those bearing Islamic names. He noted, "It is even the plan of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) to prosecute more of our leaders and party followers to collapse our party."

The NDC Chairman contended that, many of the ministers in the Kufuor administration had been detected and accused of mismanagement, fraudulent deals and theft, among others, but only those with Islamic names had either been prosecuted or made to lose their positions.

Other ministers from the southern part of Ghana with the same or similar offenses, according to Alhaji Dauda, had received no judgment or sanctions from the government.

Some of the ministers who were prosecuted and denied their positions, the chairman cited, were the former Youth and Sports Minister, Mallam Isa, who was involved in the embezzlement of $46,000 meant for the national team, the former Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs, Alhaji Musah Bamba, the former Interior Minister, Malik Yakubu and the former Northern Regional Minister, Mr. Prince Andani, who were accused of having hands in the death of the late Ya-na Yakubu Andani.

According to Alhaji Dauda, some of the above mentioned ministers were jailed whilst others were forced by the President to leave their posts to wait for commissions set up to investigate them, but none of the commissions were able to come out with a report.

He continued that some other ministers, like the former Minister for Education, now for Railway, Ports and Harbours, Prof. Ameyaw Akumfi, was also involved in a text book contract scam, the former Minister for Trade and Industries, Kofi Konadu Apraku, now for NEPAD, was also indicted by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for allegedly stealing ?3.2 billion from the Free Zones fund for the construction of his presidential campaign office and Kan-Dapaah, who was also involved in a saga of crude oil from Nigeria, among others, but Alhaji Dauda said, the government had set them free without any further investigations or any sanctions, "simply because they were Akans," he added.

The NDC regional chairman, who challenged the government to, with immediate effect, come out with the reports of all the commissions set up to investigate the Yendi crisis and other atrocities, also warned that, "If President Kufuor and the Attorney General allowed those bad seeds in their government to go scot free, the NDC would classify them as the engineers of bribery and corruption in the country."

However, the NDC, as claimed by Alhaji Dauda, had revealed that these alleged nepotism, intimidation and human right abuses would become worse, if the NPP retained the presidential seat for 2005.

Another recent revelation by the NDC, according to the chairman, had it that, most of the aspiring parliamentary candidates would be subjected to false allegations and put before courts in the run-up to the December elections, to enhance the victory of the NPP.

He asserted that, the NPP government did not deserve any further term in office, because, as he put it, they had disappointed the electorate and must be blamed for the economic hardships in the country.

Alhaji Collins Dauda, who is also an aspiring parliamentary candidate in the Asutifi North Constituency, was confident that the NDC would by "hook or crook", win all the 21 parliamentary seats in the Brong Ahafo region in this year's general elections, due to what he described as their poor performance.

The NDC Regional Deputy Youth Organizer, Justice Samuel Adjei, also a parliamentary candidate in the Sunyani East Constituency, took the people back to the era of the NDC, comparing it to that of the NPP, stating that, the high increase in cocoa prices by the NPP government was of no importance or beneficial to them (the farmers), due to the "abnormal" increase in other tariffs and items on the market.

According to Justice Adjei, a cutlass which sold at ?14,000 during the NDC era now sold at ?35,000, DDT had increased from ?20,000 to ?110,000, fertilizer from ?75,000 to ?255.000 and a bag of salt he said, had also increased from ?12,000 to ?120,000.

Justice Adjei further said, these, including the increase in school fees, electricity, water, telephone, petroleum prices among others, had made the increase in cocoa prices by the government very meaningless, since the farmers could not afford the prices on the market.

He, however, blamed the electorate for the country's woes, because he said the people had prayed for a change in government without considering the implications.

The NDC youth organizer therefore urged all Ghanaians to consider their conditions and sufferings and vote massively for the NDC to recapture power in 2005.