...build a Campaign 2012 Chest for President Mills?

"There is the slightest truth in every rumour", so the adage goes. But the level-headed person has it as a duty to always conduct some sort of research or investigation to prove the veracity or falsity of the allegation.

Now, there is a rumour doing rounds about the purpose of the money generated from the auction sales of the cars impounded by that infamous Carl Wilson. The rumour says the suspicious means in which the cars were disposed of to NDC gurus and activists raises eyebrow. They conclude that part of the money will secretly be siphoned into a special chest being built to fund the Atta Mills' faction of the NDC come Election Campaign 2012. Until the actual money realised is known and confirmed by the customs department as having been handed over to them, or handed over to any public department nominated to receive such government revenue, the rumour will intensify.

It must be noted that Carl Wilson, Chairman of the Confiscated Vehicle Allocation Committee, claimed to have personalized computer software able to detect stolen cars by Ghanaians abroad. He ran this supposed software, a pretext to confiscate all posh cars imported or exported into the country by individuals, claiming them to have been stolen. The impounded cars are sold out to NDC guys under a sham auction sales scheme. Some were kept to be given out for free or sold at a different but a much reduced price to their colleagues and friends. Nothing was transparent about the activities of Carl Wilson and his boss, conniver Deputy Chief of Staff Alex Segbefia. To the rumour mongers, they are two car syndicate "big big thieves"

Was it right for Ghana government to sell the cars to keep the proceeds from the sales? I will personally say no. What is bad for the gander should also be bad for the goose, the reverse of "what is good for the goose is also good for the gander". One is punished for committing a crime, stealing a car. How justified is the other person who takes the stolen car, sells it and keeps the money for his own? Is such a person not an accomplice and hence equally guilty as the perpetrator of the crime? A Ghanaian who exports or imports a car into Ghana is accused of stealing it. The government seizes the car, sells it and keeps the money. What a shame? Is the government not equally a thief as the one who stole it from abroad? Does it not mimic the saying, "Dede ba ne Daavi ba won nyinaa ye Krobofo3?" Literally translated as, "the child of Dede and that of Daavi are both Krobos seeing that Dede and Daavi are krobos". The import of this analysis makes both the government and the accused (that Ghanaian car importer) both thieves if actually the accused did steal the car. Or, is the government trying to tell Ghanaians that, "Quick buck goes as quick as it comes?" - "Hwim hwim ade ko sro sro" - thus, the government has deprived the original thieves the use of the cars by quickly stealing it from them?

I would have preferred that the government released the cars to their foreign owners from whom the Ghanaians stole them. How the owners could be known, one may ask? The Embassies/High Commissions of the countries where the cars were purported to have been stolen from should have been notified. They could easily trace their owners by establishing contact with their Drivers & Vehicle Licensing Offices in their various countries. But the government chose to become a direct or indirect collaborator with the car theft syndicate.

The money spitefully accrued from the sale of the illegally impounded cars is as "Anguish money" as the diamonds for arms is "Blood diamond" President Mills' NDC government has caused a lot of anguish to car importers by this nonsensical quackery by Carl Wilson. The rumour mongers hope that the money will not be spent on consuming "chinchinga" and tea but rather kept for Atta Mills' election campaign of 2012 at worst. They feel strongly about the money being better if released to those from whom the cars were stolen from abroad if they were stolen at all.

Carl Wilson instead of bowing his head in shame for his entire thievery has rather mustered courage to threaten to sue a newspaper editor for accusing him of stealing cars. By his dastardly actions coupled with the connivance of Alex Segbefia, both can without fear of arrest be termed as thieves. Alex is on record to have collected GHC 5,000 from a lady with the promise to secure her a posh car. Being a lawyer himself, he had better know that his action of collecting money in advance with the promise to give her a car is premeditation. He had the intent to forcibly take a car from a genuine car importer, by accusing the fellow of having stolen it from abroad and then give it to the woman in question. Some five cars being sought by the Interpol which had their keys left on Alex's office desk have gone missing. As the key for the car used to abduct and murder the three High Court judges with the retired army Major went missing from the Rawlingses dining table, so have the keys for the five cars disappeared from Alex Segbefia's office with no trace of the cars. Alex is lying about the whereabouts of the cars. He cannot tell what has become of the cars. This is the trait of a con man.

Anyway, Alex is doing either the President's bid to help him replenish his Election Campaign 2012 chest or to help NDC milk Ghanaians and Mother Ghana big time. The financial loss caused to the State by the failure of individuals to import cars into Ghana was evidenced in the shortfall of revenue collected by the country's Ports & Harbours. They failed to meet their revenue collection target, so the government said. Carl Wilson and Alex Segbefia should be tried for causing financial loss to the State.

Rockson Adofo