AKUFO ADDO, THE SO-CALLED HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND A PNDC SPY

The NPP presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, on his campaign trail last Saturday December 13, 2008 argued that his human rights activism should be used to assess his leadership qualities as some one capable of leading Ghana.

We have a big problem with this self-righteous character trumpeting his so-called human rights pedigree to the electorate. We think it is more appropriate for Ghanaians to praise him, if any for the so-called promotion of human rights, than for him to praise himself. Yet, he has continuously waxed eloquently about his contribution to the defence of human rights under the People's Movement for Freedom and Justice.

For us on the True Democrat, we were least surprised anyway given the character of the person making the claim. When it suits him, he talks of being a human rights activist and draws on his participation in the struggle against Kutu Acheampong's rule. As a so-called human rights activist and 'super-democrat', we expect him to respond to our allegations of having been recruited to spy on his anti-PNDC colleagues for the very government he wants the world to believe was totalitarian. Of course, we have not heard Akufo-Addo tell us about his personal efforts to right the wrongs witnessed under his own NPP government in respect of the Ya Na, Yakubu Andani II, who was murdered together with his 40 elders. We are yet to hear from Akufo-Addo, the steps he has taken to defend the violations of the rights of the relatives of Alhaji Issa Mobilla, who was tortured to death in a military guardroom when he was the Attorney-General.

Under the human rights watch of Akufo-Addo, he personally instructed the arrest of Messrs Tsatsu Tsikata and Oti Prempeh, the former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and former Auditor-General respectively in Church on a Sunday. Under the human rights watch of Akufo-Addo, Justice Ghann, the poor messenger died on a Sunday in the offices of his legal firm and his burial certificate prepared long before his autopsy was carried out. As a human rights activist and a lawyer, is it fundamentally sensible to swap the grave of Justice Ghana with another corpse? Well, we believe they are not reasonably justifies neither were they defensible under the laws of Ghana.

For those media lackeys trumpeting the exploits of Akufo-Addo as a human rights activist including the self-opinionated NPP flag bearer himself, we recognize their difficulty in seeing beyond their noses. They can only see and evaluate their own achievements in human rights from their political and myopic prisms. In the case of the True Democrat, the killing of the 44 Ghanaians in the Gambia provided a very good opportunity to the self-proclaimed human rights defender to rescue himself from the disgraceful connivance and endorsement of criminal human rights behaviour by his NPP government. He failed miserably and showed to us all his high sounding rhetoric of rights while in practice he was in the thick of affairs violating the rights of more intelligent and conscientious Ghanaians.

When we exposed the spying activities of Akufo-Addo, he went very dumb while his so-called admirers also kept silent as if they were quarantined in a graveyard. We know our revelation about Akufo-Addo being a one-time PNDC spy, supplying vital information to the PNDC from his vantage position as a member of the anti-PNDC movement shocked many in the country. There is also the tendency of disbelief as people thought we were out to play politics and assassinate his character. This is not the case. We have no reason to make such grave allegation if we were not sure of the facts. We insist and would repeat same ad infinitum that Akufo-Addo dutifully worked for the PNDC as a spy and was also handsomely rewarded.

For a man with such tainted record to turn round full circle and try to use human rights activism as a pole to hang his political ambition of seeking election to the highest office of the land, we think, is repugnant and hypocritical. There is no defence for a character such as Akufo-Addo to seek the highest office of the land. The acts of condemning unconstitutional governments but quietly using the cover of darkness to pass on very sensitive information to the same regimes on his own friends and political colleagues makes it difficult to hand-over this nation to him. What is even nauseating is the revelation that he was personally rewarded with the $600,000 legal NKF Ghana Telecom contract. This is the human rights activist, who instead of keeping his mouth shut for his treacherous acts against his own friends and political colleagues wants to campaign on the platform of human rights.

It is instructive for our readers and Ghanaians as a whole to know that in the aftermath of our publication that Akufo-Addo was a PNDC spy, a very influential member of the anti-PNDC movement lend credence to our story. The member revealed to the paper that following the blow-by-blow account of their deliberations being passed-on to the PNDC, one Kwabena Amponsah was suspected of being the source of the leak. According to the man who wishes to remain anonymous, it took the anti-PNDC movement a long time to know the truth. The cat is out of the bag, and we expect Akufo-Addo to address this serious allegation of being a congenital spy and a fifth columnist.

The NPP fanatics must be told of the consequences of being too emotional about things that are written about their so-called idol and human rights activist. Their presidential candidate can choose to ignore calls on him to comment on drug-related accusations but in the case of being a PNDC spy, his stone silence would not bail him out of the quagmire he finds himself. It is a major issue, more importantly when he has gathered the moral courage to tout his human rights as a credential for which he must be given the opportunity to rule this country.

The Akufo-Addo's PNDC Spy Palaver Rages on as Father's PROPERTIES RELEASED FOR SPYING FOR PNDC ...Ringway Hotel, Others are the reward for spying on his friends, colleagues

True Democrat intelligence sources in the NPP have been forthcoming with additional information on the espionage activities of their party flag bearer, Nana Akufo-Addo. Following our revelation that Akufo-Addo used to spy on his friends and colleagues in the then anti-Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), a member of the movement wrote to us confirming our exposé. The NPP member stated on authority that he got to know of the espionage activities of Akufo-Addo for the PNDC several years thereafter.

According to the General, who pleaded anonymity, one of their colleagues in the anti-PNDC movement, Kwabena Amponsah was, at the height of the anti-PNDC struggle accused of being the source of leaks to the PNDC government. He explained that almost all their discussions and plans to topple the PNDC regime were known to the hierarchy of the PNDC so detailed security measures almost always initiated to neutralize their plots to overthrow the government.

The intelligence source corroborated our earlier story on the lucrative legal NKF Ghana Telecom contract reward for Akufo-Addo for working dutifully for the PNDC. In his revelation, the legal contract was not the only benefit to accrue to the so-called exponent of human rights. For spying on his own friends and colleagues in the anti-PNDC movement, his father's properties including the Ringway Hotel which were seized were released to the family, “the only one to have been done at the height of the PNDC rule he alleged.

Expatiating further on the espionage activities of Akufo-Addo, the retired General claimed the likes of J.H. Mensah and Abu Braimah are perhaps now more convinced that Amponsah was not the conduit for channeling vital information to the PNDC leaders. He stated that he is always opposed to Akufo-Addo's attempt to lead the NPP on the grounds that his track record could lead to subordinating the national interest to satisfy his overriding personal ones in the international arena.

It would be recalled that in our issue of November 28, 2008, we published a front page lead story on the NPP flag bearer as being a PNDC spy. This paper, through its intelligence unit, revealed how he used to spy for the PNDC government therefore making nonsense of his much-touted claim to being a human rights activist. We also reported that if there were regrettable human rights infractions by the PNDC, Akufo-Addo cannot run away from being a partner in that crime as he was one of the central figures, who provided the PNDC with information on his own friends and colleagues. It was based on his espionage activities for the PNDC which arguably enabled the regime to neutralize all the coup attempts to overthrow it.

Based on the new twist provided by this high-profile member of the NPP, then an active member in the anti-PNDC struggle, there is the likelihood that some of the vociferous elements in both the NPP government and in the media might have been victims of his espionage activities. It is from this standpoint that one has to view and review clearly the loud claims and pretensions to being a defender of human rights. The cosmetic move to play-up the exploits in the Acheampong era ala the UNIGOV is diminished by the explosive scandal of being an active spy for another military regime.

As the NPP man stated in his correspondence to the True Democrat, if Mr. J.A. Kufuor is being derided for participating in the PNDC as Secretary (Minister) for Local government, he can be excused for using the front door. In the case of Akufo-Addo, he preferred the devious method of all, sitting in meetings and sounding very high on the rhetoric of human rights abuses and criticizing unconstitutional governance, only to sneak out in the dark to wine and dine and provide information on his own friends and colleagues.