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17.01.2011 General News

Atta Akyea Denies Claims

17.01.2011 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Akyem Abuakwa South Constituency, Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, has described calls for his arrest as a vile propaganda stage-managed by some members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

'My crime is only in their imaginations, for they falsely accuse me of arranging to export dead bodies to the Volta Region with the intention of providing evidence to impugn the integrity of the good people of the Volta Region,' he contends.

In a statement, the MP said those pushing this agenda were prejudiced and bent on whipping tribal sentiments.

The NDC, he said, seemed to be asserting in a rather embarrassing manner that “we have made up our minds, do not disturb us with the facts”, and thus asked, “Why should I be arrested when I can be invited and why should I be prosecuted before the facts'.

Tracing events that led to the present calls by the NDC for his arrest and prosecution, Mr Atta Akyea said in his statement that right after his court appearance to restrain the Electoral Commission (EC) from conducting the Tain Election, he went into his law firm office where he was later joined by some lawyers who were also sympathetic to the cause of the NPP.

In the course of their discussions, he said, one Rev Amaning Kwarteng and Lawyer Obiri Boahene, the then Minister of State for Interior, walked in, after which Rev Amaning secretly recorded all the discussions and subsequently delivered the recordings to Radio Gold, an Accra-based radio station.


“The tape has been played over and over again to the high heavens,” he said.

The statement said instead of giving the devil his due as far as the tape was concerned, the NDC had put so much spin on the tape by emphasising that “we were planning to transport cadavers to the Volta Region to cause mayhem and create electoral problems'.

It said Mr Atta Akyea himself never spoke about dead bodies in the recorded discussions, rather there was a comment by “Alhaji Yakubu Malik that there were rumours that people had died in the Volta Region as a result of electoral violence and if their bodies could be found, a case could be made out of that”.

The statement said Alhaji Malik’s statement had been given an unfortunate spin to make it seem as though lawyers of such high standing were now mortuary men, 'scheming in my law firm to dump dead bodies in the Volta Region'.

It further wondered how a lawyer’s decision to put his legal service at the disposal of a party to seek redress at the law court would be made to look as if the party was resorting to violence.

“When the Electoral Commission opined that Tain was the decider, the law-abiding NPP supporters did not pick clubs to chase the NDC members. NPP went to court. If I am a villain because I went to court, so be it. I am an unrepentant worshipper in the sanctuary of the rule of law even if a decision does not meet my expectations,” the statement added.

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