Mallam Isa Endorses NDC

> Mallam Isa Endorses NDC

The former Minister for Youth and Sports, Mallam Ali Yusif Isa, who was jailed for wilfully causing financial loss to the state has declared his support for the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“I am going to vote for Prof Atta Mills in the forthcoming December election and urge all Ghanaians to do the same,” he said.

At a press conference in Accra to explain the rationale for his decision to support the NDC, he said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration had failed to fight corruption contrary to their zero-tolerance-for-corruption claim.

He said he had learnt his lessons and believed that the only way to reposition Ghana on the path of true reconciliation, prosperity and growth was for Ghanaians to vote for a better man for a better Ghana.

He challenged the legality of the law on wilfully causing financial loss to the state and questioned the government's commitment to the slogan of 'zero tolerance for corruption'.

The former minister also reacted to a statement made by the President, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, in an interview on BBC, in which he tried to defend his promise of zero tolerance for corruption, as well as one by the New Patriotic Party Presidential aspirant, Nana Akufo-Addo, at the recent Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Debate held in Tamale.

Both President Kufour and Nana Akufo-Addo cited Mallam Isa's case to support the NPP government's commitment to zero tolerance for corruption during those separate occasions.

The former Sports Minister therefore challenged Nana Akufo-Addo to tell the whole world the basis for ordering his prosecution and how he managed to manipulate the judiciary to secure his sentence in 72 days, which he described the fastest trial in the history of Ghana.

“Ghana cannot continue on this path of selective application of the law. The NPP did not imprison me only but also other hard-working citizens such as Messrs Kwame Peprah, Ibrahim Adams, Dr George Sipa Yankey and Tsatsu Tsikata, who obviously are not members of the NPP,” he stated.

He recalled that President Kufuor, in a deceitful gesture to portray to the whole world that he was a unifier, appointed Professor George Hagan and Dr Paa Kwesi Ndoum from the Convention People's Party (CPP), himself from the People's National Convention (PNC) party and a few others to be part of his administration, but little did he know that the “ All-inclusive government” being propagated by the President was going to be one of his many failed promises.

Mallam Isa claimed that President Kufour had over-looked several cases of corruption and maladministration under his watch and expressed the belief that though the press conference would not stop Nana Akufo-Addo and President Kufour from citing his case as the flagship of their fight against corruption, “one would surely agree that they have never been committed to the fight against corruption”.

According to him, he never embezzled the said US$46,000, for which he was prosecuted and imprisoned, stressing that “Nana Akufo-Addo did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that I stole and wilfully caused financial loss to the state and I never resigned from President Kufour's government as he will have the whole world believe”.

“The list of corruption charges which the NPP government has left unattended to or, at best, swept under the carpet is endless,” healleged, and noted that he had now learnt his lessons and hoped that none of his peers would go through his experience.

Story by Edward Turkson

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