Opinions of Tuesday, 10 May 2011

Columnist: The Ghanaian Lens

Jake: Where Is The Stadium Disaster Fund Money?

10 years ago, specifically on May 9, 2001, over 126 innocent Ghanaian football fans lost their lives at the Accra Sports Stadium during an epic Hearts of Oak vrs Asante Kotoko match.

It was a wet and rainy Wednesday evening and what should have been an everyday football match, turned out to be the worse ever football disaster Ghana has experienced.

Indeed, the records have it that the May 9th disaster is the 3rd worse such disaster in the world.

The NPP had succeeded in winning political power from the NDC and having taken over the reins of government, unwisely decided to politicize everything in Ghana.

Suddenly, Asante Kotoko became the bona fide property of the Asante cum Akan dominated tribal NPP.

Once the NPP took over the reins of power, Asante Kotoko fans were made to walk around believing that football was now a party political matter and so everything will be done to make sure that Kotoko wins every match.

In the build up to the epic match, the airwaves were inundated with all kinds of irresponsible and loose talk about how Kotoko will win the match come what may and how they will misbehave if victory did not come their way.

Indeed, in those days, the talk from the NPP and Kotoko supporters was akin to the war mongering “all die be die” cry of Akufo-Addo.

For reasons that their party was in power, Kotoko fans decided to misbehave and act like animals because their team lost to Hearts of Oak. They could not understand why the NPP was in power and Kotoko will lose and so they started ripping off the brand new chairs at the stadium and acting in all kinds of silly and foolish ways.

In a bid to stop the animalistic behaviour of the Kotoko fans, some trigger happy policemen let go of teargas canisters; the ensuing stampede in a bid to run away from the teargas is what led to the wanton loss of precious human lives.

For those who believe in occultism, there was a strong believe that the whole thing was orchestrated for blood to flow for the blood-sucking demons of Kufuor, Eyadema, and the NPP to have a party.

For a fact, immediately after the blood flowed waa waa waa, a delegation arrived from Togo ostensibly to mourn with Ghanaians but the real intention was to walk in the blood and perform some rituals for Kufuor and Eyadema. As they say, the rest is history.

In wake of the NPP deliberately killing over 126 innocent football fans (mostly supporters of Hearts of Oak from Nima Chapter O), the NPP Government under the auspices of certificateless Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, then Chief of Staff and Minister in-charge of Presidential Affairs, set up a Stadium Disaster Fund ostensibly to pool resources to cater for the family of the victims. With the coercive force of the State, Jake forced, individuals, groups, corporate entities (especially banks and other financial institutions), to donate huge sums of money to the Fund.

Sitting at the Castle like a landlord collecting rent from tenants, Jake received, huge sums in, cedis, pounds sterling, dollars, euros, French franc, and other currencies.

Day after day, Jake was seen in the papers and on TV collecting either hard cash or cheques.

Indeed, so harsh was Jake’s orders that no corporate entity dared refuse to donate to the Fund.

Unbeknown to Ghanaians, the so-called Stadium Disaster Fund was set up by Jake and his master Kufuor, to enrich themselves!

Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey sat at the Castle and collected huge sums of monies and has not accounted for a pesewa to date.

Only Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey knows what happened to the billions that accrued to the Fund.

Indeed, Chuck Kofi Wayo, sometime in 2002, exposed Jake when he (Wayo) said publicly that Jake kept boasting about how rich he had become via the Stadium Disaster Fund.

According to Wayo, anytime he visited Jake in his home, Jake will get drunk on bottles of Vodka and boast about how rich he had become via the colossal amount of money that accrued to the Fund.

According to Wayo, it was on one such visit to Jake’s house that Jake (drunk on Vodka), referred to Kufuor as an “Ashanti bastard”. As the records have it, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey suffered a cardiac arrest immediately after Kofi Wayo exposed him.

Of course, Jake also got the sack as Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs and kept tumbling along the Ministerial line ending up with an amorphous title of Minister in-charge of Beautification of the Capital. 10 years down the line, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey has not accounted for a pesewa of the money that accrued to the Fund.

10 years down the line, the children, wives, and families of the dead are in a state of hopelessness and despair in spite of the fact that a Fund was set up to take care of them.

Jake Otanka-Obetsebi-Lamptey has not accounted for the Stadium Disaster Fund, and he thinks he can lead a campaign that will foist Akufo-Addo on Ghanaians? Does Jake really think that he has the credibility to lead Akufo-Addo to victory?

A man who steals money belonging to the family of dead people; does he think any right-thinking Ghanaian will pay any attention to him when he goes knocking on their doors to vote for Akufo-Addo?

A man who steals money belonging to the families of dead people; a man who uses state funds to renovate a government bungalow and turns round to attempt to buy the bungalow; a man who sells prime land to a group so he can pocket huge cash and get a scholarship for his daughter; a man who helped turned Ghana into a cocaine coast; is this the man who is hoping that he can lead Akufo-Addo into battle and win come 2012?

Jake was able to foist Kufuor on Ghanaians in 2000 because we did not know him; now that Ghanaians know him for the scoundrel that he is, Jake should know it for a fact that we will never allow him to foist another conscienceless criminal on the good people of Ghana.

For those of us on The Ghanaian Lens, our constant prayer is for the ghosts of the departed to continue to haunt Jake and Kufuor so they will know no peace until they account for every pesewa that was donated.

May the souls of our dearly departed rest in eternal and perfect peace!!! Amen!!!