PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA, PROF JOHN EVANS ATTA MILLS ON 13TH MARCH, 2012 IN TAMALE

Dear Mr President, the Young Patriots(YP) of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have consistently agitated that your government should double its efforts in the implementation of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) to bridge the development chasm between the three Northern regions and the rest of Ghana. Those calls have fallen on deaf ears so we had no option but to turn to the streets to make our voices heard.

Mr President, we find it mind boggling that you travelled to the United States of America on the 25th December 2011, to negotiate with Prof Jeffery Sachs for $18m as a sign of your commitment to SADA, when you had previously paid Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome some GHC 51.2m ($40m) for no work done and from Internally Generated Funds (IGF).

We the members of the YP are questioning your commitment to the development of the Northern belt because the Vice President through his spokesperson in June, 2011 indicated to the people of Ghana that your government had secured some $340m to SADA, yet the monies cannot be traced. The Vice President also early this year also indicated that the government has secured GHC 200m as the seed money for SADA and yet as we speak no such monies have been committed.

Per our calculation Mr President, your government has secured some $500m dollars in the name of SADA since you took office. We find the coincidence strange that you have paid the same amount in false judgement claims to party cohorts and your sympathisers and fundraisers.

We as good citizens of Ghana (citizen vigilantes) wish to humbly ask you the following in respect with SADA and the judgement claims;

1. That all the GHC 640m paid to your faithfuls be retrieved starting with the GHC 51.2m paid to Woyome in fraudulent claims and immediately committed to the SADA account.

2. That the government publish fully the progress of all SADA projects to date for the people of Ghana to acquaint ourselves with the facts.

3. That the SADA secretariat declare and publicise all monies received in the name of SADA.

4. That the SADA board be dissolved for their incompetence and lack of progress on SADA projects and that a new board of competent professionals be put in place to speedily steer the affairs of SADA.

5. That all government appointees associated with the gargantuan claims you have made to individuals and companies, such as Barton Oduro, Kwabena Duffour and Betty Mould Iddrrisu should not only be dismissed but charged for wilfully causing financial lose to the state.

6. We wish to serve notice that signatures of citizen vigilantes shall be collected during this demonstration and presented to various development partners for further actions towards the recovery of these judgment debts.

7. Last but not least, Mr President, we pray you to ask for the release of the five NPP activists namely Yahuza, Habib, Imoru Gunda Naa, Majeed & Sayeebu who were arrested in Tamale during the 2008 elections, and who are still incarcerated three years on without any court finding them guilty of the alleged crime to have committed. In line with your father for all mantra and Christian values of fairness and equity, if you truly do believe in those values and hold them dear. The court must grant them bail with immediate effect whilst the matter is fully determined.

Mr President, failure to attend to the above request, will leave us no option but to resort to other more drastic measures to ensure that justice is done to the people of the three Northern regions in particular and Ghana in general.

SIGNED
RICHARD NYAMAH 0203418850
DANIEL NII KWARTEI TITUS-GLOVER 0200737197
HOPSON ADORYE 0201433925
JOHN KUMAH 0244171471