Has Muntaka been denied justice by President Atta Mills?

In this modern days where transparency, democracy, human rights and rule of law are the essentials for complete running of a country where individuals and institutions are ensured that their rights are not trampled upon, we should not be surprised that people will be going to the law courts to seek redress when they are libeled or accused.

Therefore, when series of allegations were leveled against the former minister of youth and sports, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, that he had misappropriated state funds meant to develop sports under his ministry, all that majority of the people were waiting to hear was the matter being sent to a court of competent jurisdiction for trial and the accuse if found guilty is punished and if not freed.

But we were all taken by surprise when the president Professor J.E.A. Mills, came out that he had commissioned the Bureau of National Investigations [BNI], to take up the matter and investigate, report to his outfit for sanctions.

This directive in fact ate half of the confidence most of the people have reposed in the "no nonsense" president who has sworn to ensure that corrupt activities are uprooted in the system under his leadership as president of Ghana.

What made the whole thing very funny was whether the BNI, has been turned into a court to try cases of corruption and when was that state security agency turned to a corruption case settling "den" makes some of us to believe that there were certain fishy deals that when the case is sent to court might expose the government of the professor and his NDC party which has sworn to uproot corruption in Ghana.

Aside that, screwing the story of Muntaka's corruption allegations and the way it was settled, it could be said that the fine looking brother was denied justice by his own government by not allowing him to seek redress of the matter at any of our country's competent courts of jurisdiction creating more room for "real gray" areas for critics to use to spank him.

For the Chief Director and accountant of the ministry, Mr.Adim Odoom to draft a 17 point allegations to no person than the president of the country gives one course to believe that there might be some iota of truth in what they were complaining of against the minister and therefore calling on the president to take action based on the assurance given by the professor that he will not allow corruption to sink the country.

Haven received such a document containing allegations leveled against a minister of his government all that one was expecting to hear from the professor, was to grant his minister the permission to seek justice from the law court if he the minister claim he was wrongfully accused or framed.

To batterers my point, take Malam Issah's case for instance where he was alleged to have misappropriated 46,000 U.S. Dollars given to him to pay winning bonuses of black stars in Sudan only for him to return and report that the money was missing. He denied misappropriating it and to make justice free for all, the president granted him permission to go and seek redress from the law court.

He was assured of his position back should he win his case as sports minister. But unfortunately, he lost his case and was sentenced to serve as deterrent to others only for him to be pardoned by the same president after haven tasted the prison food "zotolo" and scrub the "azure" washroom.

A second case in point was that of Dr. Richard Anane, the former roads and transport minister who was accused of abusing his office by spending funds of his ministry to sponsor a white girl friend he impregnated whiles on government official duty [attending conference on [HIV,AIDS].

He had all the right to seek justice from the competent court of jurisdiction whiles he was replaced by an acting minister awaiting the outcome of the trial and lo and behold he won his case and was retained as minister under the same NPP government.

So haven given these two cases of examples there was no need for the president to have stopped trial or prosecution of the allegations leveled against the minister in a competent court of jurisdiction.

Now let us look at some gray areas that improper handling of the case has created for the fine Muslim looking Alhaji. Yes he has been exonerated by the "now BNI turned into court" and that is fine. But the whole thing has created confusion in the minds of many Ghanaians now. First of all if he was exonerated from the charge that he dipped his hand into state coffers and used it to cover unofficial expenses he and his girlfriend incurred and that the president praised him for cutting waste on unnecessary expenditure at the ministry, then why is the president asking the former minister to pay back in full the money he spent in purchasing tickets and cover other expenditures they made in Germany? If truly the minister has been exonerated from all the charges meaning he was clean then why was he forced to resign or if he resigned on his own why did the president accept the resignation and not allow him to continue his work?

For the president to interdict the anticorruption campaigners who I think had a lot of confidence that he was going to ensure that justice becomes the order of the day, many have been disappointed and the door to corruption exposure closed where even those who might also be waiting to reveal such unacceptable acts of ministers and departmental heads changing their mind.

Trust me, there are more Adim Odooms in state departments who want to help the president to clean the system of corruption but will no more do so because they can not sacrifice their lives for their jobs as the great two from sports ministry are suffering now.

If there is any advice to offer here I would like to urge both the accused Alhaji Muntaka and the defendant Mr. Odoom to battle the case in court for total justice to be served both of them and clear their names of wrong doing.

They should not forget that, any government that comes to power after president Mills and shows interest in the case can open it in court so it is not dead as we may be thinking it has happened else where and it can happen too in Ghana.

All the best to both parties.

Credit: Stephen A.Quaye,Toronto-Canada.

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