-Appointees, Family & Friends targeted

Having succeeded in using half-truths and sometimes outright lies to bait Ghanaians into voting out his government, the governing New Patriotic Party has activated another devious tactic aimed at painting President John Mahama and his administration as the worse thing to ever happen in Ghana.

Headlining these crude political antics is an elaborate scheme by the Akufo-Addo government to use the power of state machinery, the media and other assigns to desecrate and denigrate ex-President Mahama, his immediate family, appointees and his supposed friends.

Leading this latest attempt to smear Mr Mahama is no less a person than President Akufo-Addo himself who threw all courtesies to the wind and launched an unrestrained onslaught on the ex-president’s record in office during his maiden State of the Nation Address.

The President’s attacks on Mr Mahama’s record without acknowledging the ‘good works’ he has been bequeathed came days after the two Ghanaian statesmen at the inauguration of Gambia’s newly elected President, Mr Adama Barrow; ceremoniously embraced each other before the cameras to the admiration of all.

Whilst many heaped praises on the two and predicted that it was a sign of cordial relationship between President Akufo-Addo and Mr Mahama, little did those who held this view knew the President had planned to start a vile campaign against the former President and his administration.

Aside setting up Mr Mahama for public ridicule that he wanted to purchase his official residence, President Akufo-Addo and his henchmen in government also tried to accuse officials of the previous administration of stealing 200 government vehicles.

When former deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Jonny Osei Kofi, exposed them with documentary evidence, the Akufo-Addo government resorted to using officials of National Security and NPP vigilante group, Invincible Forces, to terrorise NDC members in the name of retrieving missing government vehicles.

The government has so far been embarrassed as it ended up apologising to persons whose vehicles have been forcefully seized, and in some instances, NPP activists who led such illegal ‘operations’ have been sued.

With all these antics failing, the Akufo-Addo administration has resorted to using the Economic and Organise Crime Office (EOCO) to go after some officials of the Mahama government in a desperate move to get them implicated and eventually jailed for corruption.

To sustain his negative tag of the Mahama government, President Akufo-Addo in his first State of the Nation Address painted a “gloomy future” he says the previous administration had left behind.

Deliberately ignoring the unmatched infrastructural achievements of the outgone NDC government and the seemingly impressive economic fundamentals, President Akufo-Addo chose to only highlight the shortfalls of the Mahama administration.

While it is on record that, it was the Mahama government that negotiated a 125 million Canadian dollars facility to support government’s initiative of increasing agricultural output and reduce food prices, President Akufo-Addo failed to acknowledge his predecessor’s efforts in initiating and securing funding for the project expected to kick-start this year.

President Nana Akufo Addo in his maiden State of the Nation Address to Parliament last week disclosed that: “An amount of 125 million Canadian dollars has been secured from Canada a friend of our nation to support the initiative. This will be anchored on the pillars that will transform agriculture, the provision of improved seeds, supply of fertilisers and the use of e-agriculture.”

But in a sharp rebuttal, Minister of Food and Agriculture in the immediate past government, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, told the media “there is no way a new government will resume office in six weeks” and contract a loan without the donor country doing due diligence before giving out the funds adding, he expects the Canadian High Commission to react to the President’s statement.

He added that “since 2013 the government of Canada began discussions with the Mahama government of Ghana on the next budget support program which was to be designed. And we went through a number of tasks to be able to come out with this.”

The Akufo-Addo government is also alleged to have deliberately created an artificial power rationing popularly known as dumsor to rubbish Mr Mahama’s investment in the energy sector and claims; he had fixed the debilitating power crisis.

Perhaps, President Akufo-Addo was setting the tone for full rollout of this plot when he stated in his SONA address that Mr Mahama handed over to him an energy sector saddled with huge debt without acknowledging investments his predecessor made in the energy sector which has resulted in installed generation of over 3500MW against peak demand of 2000MW.

Government spokesperson, so-called neutral Civil Society Groups and Journalists have since been assigned to blame the ongoing power outages on the Mahama government. Vice President of IMANI Ghana, Mr Kofi Bentil amplified government’s inordinate propaganda to obliterate Mr Mahama’s record when he said the energy sector was put on steroids in the last quarter of 2016 to give a semblance of a crisis that has been solved.

This, The aL-hAJJ’s intelligence has gathered, was deliberately done to paint the Mahama government in dark colors and set the former President up for attacks even after exiting and handing over power in one of the problem-free transitions on the African continent.

Ironically, some influential members of the NDC have joined hands with President Akufo-Addo and his NPP to hound Mr Mahama even after working clandestinely to get him kicked out of office after serving just a term.

Relentless in its effort to disgrace the former President and his family, the seat of government was alleged to have engineered a false publication that President Mahama’s younger brother and Chief Executive of Engineers and Planners, Mr Ibrahim Mahama and one Ali Seidu, were being investigated by EOCO over alleged corrupt deals at COCOBOD.

The aL-hAJJ is reliably informed that in the coming days EOCO will extend invitation to past government officials and persons deemed to be close associates of Mr Mahama including his wife, Mrs Lordina Mahama over alleged corrupt charges in an attempt to disgrace the former first family.