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19.02.2010 Feature Article

Mr Craig Murray is absolutely wrong: (Re: More Fraud in Ghana, February 18, 2010).

Mr Craig Murray is absolutely wrong: Re: More Fraud in Ghana, February 18, 2010.
19.02.2010 LISTEN

I find it difficult to understand Mr. Craig Murray's assertions on "The UK and Corruption in Ghana" for which he believes that No one else is right except Him (Craig) alone.

How can you claim that the picture shown by citifm.com about Kpong power project in Ghana is fake but you want people to believe your claims which have no evidence to substantiate them.

Do you think that Ghanaians are so stupid that walls built around a project can block our imaginations and thinking about what the truth is?

What makes me doubt your credibility here is the way you interpreted and inferred what Dr Nick Westcott said (That "incoming governments must respect contracts entered into by the outgoing government").

You said, "But WE ALL KNOW that Dr Westcott did not mean it as a general point".

The question is; you and who know?
You also said, "He meant that investigations into contracts including Kosmos and Vodafone must be stopped". Otherwise, he warned, "investor confidence would be damaged" – a warning that foreigners would take their dollars elsewhere.

The question again is, Does the English word 'RESPECT' contracts means 'STOP' investigation?. Don't you think it's a personal and wrong interpretation you've given?

I can also confirm that, the evidence of what Nick Westcott said is prevailing now in Ghana, where the Bank of Ghana's report indicates that the "investor confidence is low in Ghana.

The question is why?
See (10/09/2009, www.thestateman.com “Global survey confirms investor confidence low in Ghana")

On Vodafone; the Ghana Government official inter-ministerial committee review released on the Vodafone/GT contract did not find anything fishy with the contract. See (www.peacefmonline.com, date: 03-Nov-2009, "Gov't Won't Abrogate Contract").

You claim you are the chairman of Atholl Energy. "Atholl had a contract with the NPP government which has been honoured by the NDC government, because we carry our work diligently and honestly".

The question is why are you claiming self righteous, what makes you believe that no one else can have a clean contract signed in Ghana apart from you? That was a vain glory claimed, wasn't it?

The fact that I respect your altruistic character, I bet I can challenge you on all the points you have raised in your article.

You claim, “The hypocrisy of the British government in defending corrupt British companies was most famously seen when Tony Blair ordered an end to a prosecution of the arms company BAE over massive bribes they had paid in Saudi Arabia”.

But it's known in the public domain that the SFO of UK dealt with the Mabey and Johnson which is a UK Company about their corrupt practices during their operation in Ghana and other countries where all kinds of bribery corruptions took place under your purview (Craig) as a Deputy High Commissioner to Ghana in 1994-99. See (guardian.co.uk, Friday 10 July 2009 19.57, Mabey and Johnson admits bribing officials abroad to secure contracts).

The SFO of UK prosecuted the Balfour Beatty, another UK construction group, of which they agreed to pay a £2.25m in 2007 for their corrupt practices. This raises my question that where stands your assertion that “The British Government are the Biggest Hypocrites” and turned to shield UK companies abroad? See (http://www.nce.co.uk/news/business/mabey-and-johnson-prosecuted-for-corruption/5204942.article).

In your article on November 15, 2009; Topic: 'Oil Must Benefit Ordinary Ghanaians', you said, “Both President John Kufour and President John Atta Mills, on coming to power after defeating the previous government in election, appear to have taken the same view. As I see it, they judged that in Ghana's new democracy, it is essential that when the government changes, it should be seen by all that vindictive action is not pursued against members of the other party. Only a very small number of middle ranking figures have suffered from anti-corruption action. These were the actions of wise and generous hearted men”.

To me I think this statement you made is not different from what Dr Nick Westcott the current high commissioner to Ghana said, that the New Ghana Government should respect contracts signed by the outgoing government. In other words the new government should not be vindictive.

In January 2, 2009, you (Craig) as an ex-deputy high commissioner to Ghana, you were able to poke nose into Ghana's election which your comment had a direct interference in Ghana's constitution when you said “Ghana-Nana Akuffo Addo Should Concede defeat Now”, even before the completion of Tain's with 51,000 voters election. See (http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/01/ghana_nana_akuf.html)

I therefore believe that the question people would be asking is that how come that you (Craig) have the right to interfere in Ghana politics but you think no one else has the right to contribute to our democracy?

In July 2004, he told The Guardian that "there is no point in having cocktail-party relationships with a fascist regime," and that "you don't have to be a pompous old fart to be an ambassador”. Mr. Murray said this when he was booted out of his post as British ambassador to Uzbekistan.

In October 2002, Murray made a speech at a human rights conference hosted by Freedom House in Tashkent, in which he asserted that "Uzbekistan is not a functioning democracy" and that the boiling to death of two members of Hizb ut-Tahrir "is not an isolated incident.” Later, Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan confronted Uzbek President Islom Karimov with Murray's claims. Such a chaotic presentation by Mr. Murray on that platform about such a sensitive issue could have degenerated into a very serious internal argument. See (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray)

This same Murray was summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London and, on March 8, 2003, was reprimanded for writing, in a letter to his employers, in response to a speech by President of the United States George W. Bush.

Now another unfounded statement by Mr. Murray about the current British High Commissioner to Ghana and the previous NPP government contracts with the foreign companies. Assertions by Murray again, knocking our heads together as Ghanaians, creating unjustifiable argument in Ghana today.

In fact, I do admire Mr. Murray's altruism but I have serious problem with his mode of presentation without considering the repercussions on Ghanaians and Ghana as a nation.

Peter Nana Antwi Boasiako.
[email protected]
London, Romford Essex

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