Opinions of Sunday, 14 April 2013
Columnist: Damptey, Daniel Danquah
I know him to be a Lawyer, Mills Declares.
The above headline was the lead story in The Ghanaian Lens No. 058 edition of Friday, 10th July, 2008. The story was by one Maxwell Okamafo Addo. Please enjoy it.
“NDC leader and Presidential Candidate, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, has stated that as far as he is concerned, Akufo-Addo, the flag-bearer of the NPP is a lawyer.
“The reaction from the NDC leader came barely twenty four hours after the former First Lady, Mrs. Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, publicly alleged that the NPP flag-bearer’s claims that he is a lawyer were false because, to her knowledge, the NPP Flag-bearer has not had any legal training. According to the learned law professor, he knows Akufo-Addo to be a bona fide member of the legal fraternity.
“Speaking through his Spokesperson, Hon. Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku Central, the NDC Leader said that he has no reason to doubt the legal education of Akufo-Addo and therefore disassociates himself from any information doing the rounds that the flag-bearer of the NPP is not a lawyer and has no legal training.
“Quite instructively, Professor Mills did not allow the fact that the NPP Flag-bearer is his main opponent in the upcoming 2008 elections to influence him into keeping quiet and allow his opponent to be unjustifiably harangued.
“Prof. Mills’ timeous intervention on behalf of his opponent clearly reflects his commitment to seeking justice for every Ghanaian, irrespective of political affiliation, tribal origins, or religious inclinations. It also reflects his commitment to waging a campaign devoid of needless personal attacks.
“According to Hon. Ayariga, Professor Mills has no problem as far as Akufo-Addo’s legal education is concerned and felt the need to make his thoughts known in the wake of information doing the rounds that the flag-bearer of the NPP has no legal training.
“Certainly Professor Mills has been a law teacher for a couple of decades and he’s known the Honourable Nana Akufo-Addo for a very long time. He tells me that he has no doubt whatsoever about the professional competence of Nana Akufo-Addo”, Honourable Ayariga stated.
Continuing, Hon. Ayariga said, “He (Akufo-Addo) is qualified as a lawyer and so whoever has made statements about the qualifications of Nana Akufo-Addo is definitely not properly informed or has been misled and definitely Nana Akufo-Addo has the competence as a lawyer.”
Making reference to the comments made by the Former First Lady, Hon. Ayariga stated, “definitely she might not have all the information that we have, and so I think it is all about the level of information you have about an individual. We have enough information about Nana Akufo-Addo to know that he is professionally qualified.”
“As I said Prof. Mills has been a teacher for a very long time, he has practised law and he has worked on some occasions with people, I believe who definitely are very close or worked closely with Nana Akufo-Addo and know his professional qualifications” the Mills’ Spokesperson added.
Apparently recognizing that possibility of opponents of the NDC to misconstrue this expression of divergent opinion to mean that there is a rift in the NDC, Hon. Ayariga was quite unequivocal that the position of Prof. Mills and his campaign team must not be misconstrued as a rift within the NDC.
Professor Mills and his team are committed to the truth and felt obliged to correct the inaccurate information put out by the Former First Lady,” Honourable Ayariga stated.
Readers, this was what the late President Mills said on the issue. He played the gentleman card and spoke candidly what he sincerely believed was the truth. His then Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga, now Minister of Information in “Danger Boy Mahama, riding a bicycle without brakes and descending a hill” cabinet is alive and must come out with the truth.
I had expected the Nefarious Destructive Cancer to issue an official statement to distance itself from the negative propaganda of the confused, irresponsible and dis-oriented Justice Kpegah. I had thrown an open challenge to Tsatsu Tsikata, who was sacked by ex President Rawlings at the tail end of the first NDC administration to speak out his mind on the issue. But coward that he is, he has so far refused to take up the gauntlet.
Why, Tsatsu? I have no hesitation to state here that because of political expediency, you Tsatsu Tsikata will have no compulsion in selling your soul to the devil just as Esau sold his birthright to his junior brother for pottage.
By resurrecting an issue which has been been buried by late President Mills, is the NDC now telling Ghanaians that a new Pharaoh who does not know Joseph has emerged? This is similar to what happened under Orwell’s Animal Farm and the defunct Soviet Union under Yosef Stalin after the death of Lenin. Revisionism has crept into the NDC through the back door, for President John Mahama and his cohorts are doing everything within their power to obliterate the name, John Evans Atta Mills from the political history of Ghana.
If the above is not the case, why should the party give prominence to an issue which has been dead and buried and of no relevance to the forward moving agenda of our dear nation? The late President has stated emphatically that those alleging that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is not a qualified lawyer are ignorant and do not know their left from their right. This presupposes that the frustrated, ignorant, sullen-looking and “educated illiterate”, Justice Kpegah and those cheer leaders urging him on are not worthy to be reckoned with amongst enlightened people in the country.
Why should Justice Kpegah, a man who has fallen from the highest citadel of learning to the lowest level of the “infra dig” be accepted into normal civilized society, when every utterance from his unbridled mouth smacks of hypocrisy, hatred, jealousy, danger?
Unfortunately, there are many blind Bartimeous within and outside the country who think negatively about people they perceive to be their betters. One of such persons, aside Justice Kpegah is Michael Bokor. This man has sold his soul to the devil and has no morals worthy of emulation by even those from the stables of Mephistopheles. I bet, Lucifer will reject him from entering his kingdom. Initially he pretended to belong to the NPP. Maybe, like Kwesi Pratt and Kofi Wayo, they thought they would be given ministerial/ambassadorial positions in the Kufuor’s administration. When their wishes were not granted, they began to reveal their true colours. The analysis made by this political mistake called Michael Bokor could only have come from Lucifer himself.
Thank God, the relevant documents calling Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo to both the Middle Temple in the UK and the Ghana Bar have been scanned and made public and also published in the dailies. What then will be the next line of action to be taken by these demonic people who sees nothing good in Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo?
Justice Kpegah and Michael Bokor appear to have been in a charismatic zoo by pitching their tents in the camp of the Nefarious Destructive Cancer.
Should such people be integrated into normal human society? I say a “Big No” to that. By dining with the Licifer himself, they have lost even the grace promised those who sincerely repent of their sins in the Holy Bible. The two are disasters waiting to happen.
In the publication giving a clean bill of health to the Flag -bearer of the New Patriotic Party, both his residential and postal addresses are given. Do the duo of Kpegah and Bokor now have any grounds to question Nana’s credibility as a lawyer? The mischief mind of Justice Kpegah was seriously at work when in his writ, he gave the initials as WED instead of WAD. This was meant to disorientate and confuse Nana’s loyalties to create credibility doubts in their minds. What does the E stand for? If this falsehood had been allowed to stay, Nana’s fans and NPP supporters would have been hard put trying to defend such an indefensible act. But the scales have been removed from people’s eyes and the true initials of that Great Man of History has been given. It is Williams Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo?
Does Justice Kpegah deserve any respect for deliberately falsifying facts and figures to malign an innocent person? No, he doesn’t! His act is criminal in nature and as a former Justice of the Supreme Court, he should have been aware of such basic elementary principle. His tarnished image would be next to Kwame Abe, the legendary highway man of Ashanti, and to Al-Capone, the never to-be-forgotten terrorist, gangster and fraudster of the United States.
Do you know that what Justice Kpegah did is tantamount to murder? But as already stated in previous write-up on the issue, this old man has no self-respect, no principles, and focus. And this is the reason why I have nothing but revulsion for him. He is a disgrace to the Judiciary and Legal Profession.
As long as the controversy generated by Kpegah’s unmeritorious and unsubstantiated accusation last, it brought him into prominence and the old man was basking in the pomp and popularity his outburst had brought him. Thank God, the publication has revealed how porous, hollow and shallow-minded our “learned Deputy Chief Justice” is. It has also revealed his lack of tolerance, principles, sobriety and decorum.
Kpegah’s hatred for those who are his betters has assumed a demonic and gargantuan colouration. Kpegah must be made to produce the said William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who shares the same postal and residential addresses with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. At the same time, the Attorney General must compel him to produce evidence about the said WED Akufo Addo who died mysteriously and buried under similar conditions. His act is tantamount to causing fear and panic amongst the citizenry.
Justice Kpegah has played a dangerous game and lost it by engaging in political chicanery. It has given credence to the saying that “when a lion is hungry, it only thinks of how to get a fellow animal for food”.
His callous stance has exposed him as someone who is cowardly, haughty, arrogant, unprincipled, devilish, jealous, self-opionated and a dangerous species with an overblown ego.
The General Legal Council and the Ghana Bar Association must crack the whip by expunging Kpegah’s name from the list of lawyers in the country. Society has the responsibility to ensure that people like Justice Kpegah are not allowed to live amongst decent citizens in the country.
Justice Kpegah must be chained at all cost! I rest my case.
Daniel Danquah Damptey ([email protected]) 0243715297.