Castle seeks revenge

Esseku To Be Disciplined Over Kickback Saga The Castle is quietly seeking revenge through the NPP's Disciplinary Committee to ditch 70 year old ex party chairman for the harrowing revelations regarding the kickback saga. Accordingly the committee has invited editor of the Enquirer newspaper, Raymond Archer and David Tamakloe to testify before it.

The letter requested the two to assist the committee with records or any document they felt could assist the committee fulfill its task. But Mr Archer says he finds it very difficult to participate in the exercise because it is purely an internal party matter. He again said he cannot cooperate with the party because as far as he is concerned he sees Mr Esseku as a whistle blower who needs to be protected rather than vilified.

He expressed shock that the ruling party which claims to be committed to the Whistleblowers Act can conduct themselves in such a manner. “This is clearly an irresponsible position taken by the party which claims to be committed to protecting Whistleblowers,” he said. Barely five months after the paper broke the story of kickback allegations that the Presidency was involved in the corrupt odyssey of collecting and keeping kickbacks at the Castle, the seat of government and the disciplinary committee of the ruling NPP has intensified its investigations into the matter.

Mr Archer asked for the committee's terms of reference but his request was turned down when a former president of the Ghana Bar Association, Mr Sam Okudzeto told him he was overstepping his boundaries. The Enquirer editor wanted to know whether the committee was interested in investigating the kickback allegation or just seeking revenge.

The Enquirer newspaper's sources say the committee investigations seems to be hitting the rocks already, as its terms of reference are not clear to some members of the committee. A meeting scheduled by the committee for February 24, 2006 could not come off because most of the committee members either boycotted or did not receive their invitation letters to attend the meeting. Mr Esseku said he has not received any letter of invitation to appear before the committee, but the letter which invited Archer and David Tamakloe was copied to Esseku on paper.