| Posted: Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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| From left: Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Attorney General, Mr. Ekow Kum Amua Sekyi, Lt. col. Gbevlo Lartey (rtd) National Security Coordinator |
So when Amoah Sakyi ran to her with an extraordinary story about this mining company, Keegan Resources, and how a certain ‘Kwame Opoku, the grandson of NPP grandfather, Mr. R. R. Amponsah (deceased),’ had stolen Kufuor’s son’s company’s money, and was using guile to take back the money, the story was too sweet for Davi to get her to grasp the nuances.
With flourish, Ekow launched into an elaborate yarn, and plied Davi with sophisticated lies and more lies, abandoning his NPP credentials, as he turned his fellow NPP man into a cold target of cruel assassination.
Davi picked up the phone and carried the story to her ‘copper-coloured’ sister, who shared foreign blood with her - she Indian (Punjabi) - she Scottish (Mould), along with big brother Rawlings (Scottish) in the circle of half-castes.
She immediately leapt into action on behalf of Amoah Sekyi, who she knew could be a source of NPP stories they could exploit to her advantage - Amoah Sekyi represented Mac Manu and NPP in the Western Region.
So effective was Amoah Sekyi’s story that Davi was converted to a passive listener to a raving crusader on his version of the truth. What happened next, was an incredible story that exposed how the Government that proclaims belief in the rule of law, could sink to a level of depravity in its attempt to sustain the core values of truth and accountability.
The Attorney General summoned her Special Assistant to call two complainants to her office, even though she knew the matter had taken a criminal dimension, with both Messrs Kwame Opoku and Gordon Etroo demanding a criminal trial, in which both parties were prepared to go to jail to prove their case.
They had surrendered their case to the mercy of the Ghanaian courts, and she, the Attorney General, was tweaking the strings in the face of a court order to charge and prosecute Amoah Sekyi for fraud and forgery in the Bonte Mine palaver, where Keegan Resources had relied on forged court papers to obtain judgement against Kwame Poku, dispossessed him of his personal belongings, and was still pursued for the remainder of some money that was still due Axex Company, a company he formed with Agyekum Kufuor (Chronicle has inspected the original certificate of incorporation), and owns in part with Agyekum, using his father’s clout to obtain a contract without going through tender procedures at the Ministry of Energy).
Enter Elikem, Special Assistant to the Attorney General, who was shocked at the hostility in the voice of Gordon Etroo, Chairman of the Western Region branch of the Convention People’s Party, when he called him on behalf of Betty Mould, the whole Attorney General, to come to Accra from his Tarkwa base, and meet the A-G, apparently at the prodding of Davi.
This unusual summons from the Attorney General for the two to report at 7.00 p.m. in her office got the goat of the Mr. Etroo.
“I cannot come… do you know my programme for the day, … you just cannot come and order me to drop whatever I am doing and come… why do I have to come at 7.00 p.m.?” blurted Etroo, cheesed off at her subtle underhand manipulation of the court process.
“Hei, it’s the AG’s request … she thinks she must have time for this case, and she will block the time for you, so that this matter is resolved once and for all to everybody’s satisfaction,” Elikem gently responded.
An agitated Etroo could not make the first appointment, and then called his lawyers not to attend any frivolous meeting on his behalf.
GRADUATING
The second meeting came on, but to Etroo’s surprise, Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu may have been held up, having imbibed the story that Amua-Sekyi was bandying about that he, Etroo, a KNUST School of Mines, Tarkwa, graduate of mechanical engineering, was a semi-literate, who could not grasp the subtleties of the mining business. Indeed, he had been involved with galamsey mining since graduating over 20 years ago. She simply failed to attend the meeting, and passed on instructions to the National Security Coordinator, that he should conduct the meeting, and give her feedback, much to the angst of Etroo and Kwame Opoku.
In Accra, it was only at 6.45 p.m. that Etroo found out that the meeting was not coming on at Betty Mould’s office, but former Francis Poku’s official residence at Ridge, which had been a beehive of activity a year earlier, with mowaks streaming up and down the passage way when the NPP security chieftain had his ass kicked by President Kufuor.
Suddenly, the broad contours of the political game plan for 2011, which had been a distant blur on the sub-consciousness, emerged. Jerry Rawlings had dropped hints that Mills was too slow, and that he was going to give Ghana a leader he wanted to run Ghana, Eureka! That is the ‘Holy Grail.’
With Betty Mould’s assistant hovering around, and keeping his thoughts to himself, this extraordinary meeting on behalf of a very private company, Keegan Resources, with its bit players, had gained such major importance that the machinery of state had been mobilised to adjudicate on the matter, when the parties had placed their faith on the criminal justice system to deal with the issue with lawyers, Gbevlo Lartey and Betty Mould were sensationally subverting the institution they had a duty to protect, the meeting kicked off.
The National Security Coordinator attended the meeting without the knowledge of his boss, Brigadier Nunoo Mensah, and on the blind side of Professor Atta Mills - he was happily spreading the message of a better Ghana on the stump oblivious of the coup that was taking place behind his back - inspired by Rawlings. These were part of his corp of loyalists - Rawlings team in the Government of Atta Mills. It looked like a conundrum, but it was happening.
Gbevlo Lartey began to conduct what he knew was an illegal meeting, impressing upon the assembly that every case that could bring about peace, was very much within his domain, as National Security Coordinator.
BREAK UP MEETING
Those at the meeting included Gbevlo Lartey, Elikem, representing Mrs. Iddrisu, lawyer Joe Debrah, representing Mr. Gordon Etroo, Nana Ato Dadzie, holding brief for Mr. Kwame Opoku, Mr. Tony Ameyaw and another unnamed assistant to Etroo, Mr. Kwame Owusu Asamani and Ekow Amua-Sekyi, Mr. Dipson Akromah.
Sources close to the President, told the meeting, that the meeting which was held at Gbevlo Lartey’s Ridge residence, was on the blind side of the Presidency, and a clear demonstration of the schism that exist in the NDC.
It had been rumoured for some time, but this was a clear signal that Gbevlo Lartey, who is a loyalist of ex-President Rawlings, had finally won over Betty, who is a Nana Konadu fan, and moved to draw Betty into his fold.
Now, it has become clearer that Betty Mould-Iddrissu is the choice of Jerry Rawlings as the flagbearer for the National Democratic Congress in the 2012 elections.
Those who were rooting for Ekow Spio Garbrah as candidate may as well forget that, because Rawlings has taken his eyes off Spio. Gbevlo Lartey is supposed to coordinate the cadres and the amorphous groupings within the NDC.
What appeared to be the silhouette of Mr. Kwashivi Dabor, former special assistant of Mr. Kojo Tsikata, and enemy inverterate of Mr. Rawlings, was seen in the rushes that Chronicle had seen of the meeting. Mr. Dabor is now the Special Assistant to Gbevlo Lartey. To Mr. Gordon Etroo, who was boiling at the ‘lies of Amua-Sekyi’ and had to be restrained by his assistants, he vowed never to be at such a ‘useless meeting’ when the forum was there for them – the courts.
Kwame Opoku had his say, but it was Asamani, who pushed them to the brink with his version of the truth. The courts, Kwame Opoku also insisted, were where they would have their due desserts.
“I want you to get back everything that you have lost in the debacle,” Gbevlo Lartey wearily told Opoku and Etroo.
“But who says the court cannot get me back my mine, and the three hundred and thirty thousand dollars I paid to Ekow Kum Amua Sekyi,” retorted Gordon under his breath, as the meeting ended, with Etroo swearing never to be at such a ‘endless meeting,’ designed by Betty to muzzle him, who knows, Keegan may well be behind this with generous dollars to go around and make everybody happy. And there is an election to be fought in 2012.
Source: The Chronicle
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