Opinions of Sunday, 15 June 2008
Columnist: Okoampa-Ahoofe, Kwame
Abodakpi Finesses President Kufuor and Ghanaian Justice
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Something morally bizarre and sickening appears to be fast taking an eerie shape on the Ghanaian political landscape these days. Only days after being questionably granted a pardon by a lame-duck President Kufuor, the Anlo NDC-MP was out of prison and back in Parliament House, almost as if he had merely been on a prolonged vacation. We are also told by the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that it was business as usual, as Mr. Dan Abodakpi “was hugged and given handshakes by his NDC colleagues” (Ghanaweb.com 6/10/08).
What is bizarrely intriguing is both how the ex-convict and his colleagues in our National Assembly appear to have interpreted Mr. Kufuor’s purportedly conciliatory pardoning of the Keta Member of Parliament. By allowing Mr. Abodakpi to resume business, as usual, in the Ghanaian Parliament, these lawmakers appear to be equating a Presidential Pardon for a crime culpably committed and duly sanctioned with one that was not. In other words, Mr. Abodakpi’s sentencing to a 10-year prison term by Justice Faakye was appropriate and condign, or deservedly so. It was not the same as if the ex-convict had been deliberately railroaded, or been wrongfully condemned, for a crime that he never committed. The foregoing reason very much explains Mr. Abodakpi’s self-righteous arrogance towards the entire gesture on the part of the President. Consequently, rather than decently and humbly bow his head in shame, while earnestly seeking the forgiveness of the Ghanaian taxpayer whose hard-earned capital resources Mr. Abodakpi assisted in criminally frittering, the ex-convict has, instead, vowed to appeal the original evidence upon which Justice Faakye’s verdict was judicially predicated. Now that is sheer chutzpah! But guess what, Mr. Abodakpi has mustered the luxury of appealing Justice Faakye’s verdict because, President Kufuor, by his ill-advised decision to pardon the Keta P/NDC-MP, has inadvertently given wings and teeth to the judicially certified con-artist.
In any case, why was Mr. Abodakpi allowed to resume his seat in the Ghanaian parliament, since the pardoned convict himself does not appear to believe that he has been fully cleared of wrongdoing for him to be able to resume life as a well-meaning and decent citizen of Ghana?
Two things, here, ought to concern all progressive and patriotic Ghanaians. First, Mr. Abodakpi’s brazen and impudent reaction to his Presidential Pardon implies that the ex-convict is still in abject denial of his criminal culpability. This simply means that as a lawmaker, the Keta P/NDC-MP has absolutely no understanding of the Ghanaian legal and judicial system, all the more reason why he ought not to have been re-admitted into the Ghanaian parliament in an unsavory business-as-usual milieu, for there was nothing admirable or pedestrian about the circumstances under which the Anlo district MP was convicted and incarcerated.
Secondly, it appears as if Mr. Abodakpi has successfully, albeit rather curiously, co-opted President Kufuor into erroneously concurring with the Keta P/NDC-MP’s abjectly treasonable attempt to undermine the integrity of the country’s judicial system. For the latter reason, it is very significant for the Office of the Presidency to promptly issue a statement sternly cautioning Mr. Abodakpi against any devious attempt to misrepresent both Mr. Kufuor’s otherwise noble and kindly gesture, as well as the President’s attitude and position towards both the members of the Ghanaian judiciary as well as the country’s judicial dispensation itself.
We are also of the deep-seated conviction that Mr. Abodakpi be granted his wish of appealing Justice Faakye’s verdict, as well as thoroughly and publicly clearing his name, before ever being allowed to rejoin his colleagues in our National Assembly. In the interim, a bye-election ought to be conducted with dispatch – what a great shame and pity this had not been done two years ago – in order to ensure that a far more morally upright citizen gets to represent the people of the Anlo district.
In any event, it was quite intriguing to read Mr. Abodakpi’s statement decrying the abject condition of our nation’s prison system. One wonders why it took the ex-convict so long to come to his conclusion, since the P/NDC, more than any Ghanaian government in the postcolonial era, refined the art of political imprisonment into an inimitable culture of wholesome acceptability.
It is also worth observing that Mr. Abodakpi, all protestations to the contrary, remains immutably vindictive vis-à-vis the P/NDC-crafted law on Willfully Causing Financial Loss to the State; the ex-convict only appears to be sorry because the law had been successfully and effectively applied against him. On the preceding score, this is how a Ghana News Agency (GNA) reporter cast it: “The MP [i.e. Dan Abodakpi]…said [that] there was nothing wrong with the law on causing financial loss to the state, under which he was sentenced and went to jail for 18 months. ¶ Mr. Abodakpi said [that] what was wrong with the law was its application[,] and added that he was going for an appeal to have a remission of the rest of his sentence.”
What the preceding appears to imply is that the Keta MP intends to completely cause a summary nullification of the 18 months which he spent in prison, thus making it seem almost as if Mr. Abodakpi never served a prison term. Of course, the sole intent of the Keta-MP is to nullify Mr. Kufuor’s pardon and make it seem as if Mr. Abodakpi had singularly, valiantly and successfully fought off both the Ghanaian legal and judicial systems in order to free himself. “A mischief maker par-excellence,” were you to ask me to profile the Keta P/NDC-MP in a single and simple phrase.
Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.
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