General News of Sunday, 24 November 2013

Source: myradiogoldlive

Vikileaks can lead to prosecution and conviction - Kwesi Pratt

The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Mr. Kwasi Pratt Jnr., says the issues raised on the Victoria Hammah tape can potentially lead to prosecution and conviction.

He believes the only way to ascertain the truth in this leaked tape brouhaha is by conducting a thorough investigation into this matter.

This follows an eight-member committee set up by the Chief Justice, Georgina Theodora Wood, to investigate the allegations by the sacked Deputy Communication Minister, Victoria Hammah, that Nana Oye Lithur, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, influenced the judgement handed down by the Supreme Court in respect of the 2012 presidential election petition trial.

This is in response to a petition filed by the New Patriotic Party’s General Secretary, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, asking the Chief Justice to investigate the matter, following claims by Ms Hammah, contained on a leaked tape recording that the minister, wife of President Mahama’s counsel, Tony Lithur, met the judges on the eve of the delivery of the judgment.

Speaking in an interview on Radio Gold’s current affairs programme, Alhaji and Alhaji with Alhassan Suhuyini Saturday, Mr. Pratt says he has no difficulties whatsoever with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) trying to exploit this tape.

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party and a special aide to Alan Kyeremanten, Mr. Philip London, has commended the chief Justice for setting up the committee to probe the allegations.

He believes if the Chief Justice were not to have set up this committee, others would have expressed equally strong opinions.

“The petition that was sent to the Chief Justice came from no other person, but the general secretary of the biggest opposition party who were more or less a party to the case,” Mr. London noted.

He expressed delight at the resolve of the attorney general to recuse herself from the committee set up by the Chief Justice to probe various allegations by a former Deputy Minister of Communications that impugned the integrity of the Judiciary.