Baako Fights Konadu

Nana Konadu and Malik Kweku Baako

MALIK KWEKU Baako, Editor-in-Chief of the Crusading Guide, is folding up his sleeves to engage Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, former First Lady, in a legal tussle meant to prove that the latter had indeed wilfully caused financial loss to the state.

Malik Baako, DAILY GUIDE learnt, has expressed strong misgivings about an order from ex-President John Kufuor that the court case in which Mrs. Rawlings was facing criminal charges of willfully causing financial loss to the State in respect of the divestiture of the GIHOC Nsawam Cannery to her 31st December Women's Movement be dropped.

The Nsawam Cannery was divested to Caridem Development Company which is owned by the 31st December Women's Movement and headed by Mrs Rawlings.

Mr Baako, a known critic of the Jerry John Rawlings administration, has vowed to continue the case and accordingly made his documents and evidence ready to petition the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the matter.

He was on record as having initiated a probe into the case even before the State took the issue to the court of law and recently commented on radio that he would continue his investigations into the matter until the truth is established.

Interestingly, while Malik Baako is insisting that there were many irregularities in the divestiture, thus Mrs. Rawlings should be probed further, the former First Lady is publicly demanding an apology from ex-President Kufuor, whom she alleged, ordered that the case should be sent to court.

She claims the trial was an unnecessary one which brought a great embarrassment to her and her family.

Kweku Baako has been on the trail of the former First Couple for over a decade and was a thorn in their flesh even when they were in government.

On countless occasions, he exposed them for either peddling falsehood or having engaged in an irregularity; especially those that had to do with human rights abuses.

The former First Couple on the other hand have also been unfriendly towards the celebrated journalist. Indeed, when Mr. Baako was once adjudged Ghana's Journalist of the Year, Jerry Rawlings was on record as having commented that the journalist did not deserve the award and accused him of publishing filth and garbage.

Mrs. Rawlings, when she was First lady, was also on record as having dragged to court, Mr. Baako, then Editor of the Guide and Alhaji Haruna Atta, then Editor of the Statesman; and she managed to get both journalists jailed for a story published about her.

A Daily Guide Report