Pratt slams Tsatsu's incarceration

Accra, July 16, GNA- Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr, a leading member of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), on Wednesday slammed the conviction of Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), as a travesty of justice.

He said he thought the judiciary was to dispense justice and not just rush to give any verdict for judgment sake.

Mr Pratt was speaking at a public forum organised by the CJA in solidarity with the incarcerated former Chief Executive of the GNPC. The forum, which attracted a large audience, was addressed by various speakers all of who condemned the conviction of Tsikata as a mockery of justice and affront to his fundamental human rights. Also at the function were the siblings and wife of Tsikata as well as top National Democratic Congress (NDC) gurus who came to sympathize with their incarcerated colleague.

Mr Pratt said one could not understand how a person could be charged for causing financial loss and yet be jailed for not concentrating on his core work.

He questioned the kind of mental process that takes place in the heads of the people who had been entrusted with the peoples' mandate. Mr Pratt said the case of Tsikata was not a tussle between NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) but rather the judicial system not living up to expectation.

He also castigated the NDC administration for vilifying Mr Tsikata as wasting the country's resources on GNPC's operations adding "People are dealing with Tsatsu (Tsikata) because of how we dealt with him sometime ago".

Mr Pratt said that Tsikata's conviction was because of the selfishness on the part of the NPP.

He said Tsikata had a vision and that was for Ghana to drill oil and instead of continuing with that dream he had been jailed for wasting money so that NPP would take that credit.

Dr Ben Kumbuor, NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Lawra/Nandom, said there were some political undertones to the trial of Tsikata rather than the court judgment adding that the court was not neutral. He said Tsikata's case was a human rights issue and based on Article 9 of the 1992 constitution he was not given enough time to exhaust all avenues.

"Ghana now is country that punishes financial loss but never rewards financial gains".