A Circuit Court in Bolgatanga has ruled that a brand-new motorbike and a cash of Gh¢5,000 the EIB Network’s investigative journalist, Edward Adeti, says were given to him by officials of the Shaanxi Mining Company Ltd to influence him to not expose a High Court judge, Justice Jacob Boon, be given to him.
A former Minister of State at the Presidency, Rockson Bukari, resigned from government in 2019 after tapes revealing his alleged role in some combined attempts to influence the journalist to kill some investigative findings he uncovered in the justice system were exposed.
Three people— Charles Taleog Ndanbon, Maxwell Wooma and Suwaid Abdul-Mumin— subsequently were arraigned at the Circuit Court, presided over by His Honour Malcolm Bedzrah, for their alleged roles in the scandal. But the court, after the lawyers for the accused persons filed a motion for submission of no case, acquitted and discharged the accused persons as police prosecution team failed to establish before the court that the complainant being Adeti was a public officer.
The judge already had made it clear that the burden to win the case lay on the police and not the complainant. The police prosecution team tendered the motorbike, the cash and some tapes to the court as evidence to support the charges of giving bribe and abetment of crime levelled against the accused persons. The judge in the ruling said, since the accused persons said the motorbike and the cash were given to Adeti as “gifts”, the court would have no option but to hand over the items to Adeti. He, therefore, ruled that the items be given to the journalist.
After the ruling on Wednesday, Adeti said he had nothing to lose as the court only ruled on a technical failure on the part of the police prosecution team and that the ruling did not mean that the items were not given to him by Shaanxi key players to cover up the secret meetings some Shaanxi officials had with Justice Boon at his residence at the time their company had a case before Justice Boon.
As Adeti had proposed long ago in his exposé on Justice Boon and officials of the Shaanxi Mining Company Ltd, which was published online on Tuesday December 18, 2018, he maintained after the ruling on Wednesday that he would donate the brand-new motorbike to charity because it was against his conscience and against the ethics of Journalism for a media practitioner to accept and use items given clearly as bribes as clear on the Rockson Bukari tapes and other tapes to cover up a story against the public interest.
“I’m not disappointed at all. The police sent the matter to court after I took the items to the BNI. I appeared in court as a witness. But the police prosecution, as the court put it, failed. The motorbike should go to a needy CHPS compound to support efforts to reduce maternal and infant deaths in the Talensi District where Shaanxi operates. I’m glad I’m sending these items back to society, to the less privileged.
“The five thousand Ghana cedis should be used to procure furniture for deprived schools in the same Talensi District where the Shaanxi Mining Company operates and schoolchildren are found sitting on the floor for lack of furniture. That money they brought to influence me to harm the public is needed at those deprived schools where they (Shaanxi) operate. I prefer to walk. I will remain proud of my poverty until God does something about it. Posterity will judge every soul,” Adeti told observers and professional colleagues after the ruling.
It would be recalled that before President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo accepted the Mr Bukari’s resignation as Minister of State at the Presidency in April, 2019, over his self-admitted role in the bribery scandal, Justice Jacob Boon had admitted the Shaanxi officials visited him and recused himself from the same case involving the Chinese mining company after Adeti’s investigative findings on the secret meetings were made known to him inside his chambers.
[8/12, 8:24 PM] Nii Dortmund #1 Fan: What did Mahama do for the youth of Ghana in 8 years? Bawumia asks
August 12, 20200
Dr. Bawumia and Mr. John Mahama at a public gathering
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has asked former Mahamudu Bawumia John Dramani Mahama to tell Ghanaian youth what he did for them in the eight years he was in government as Vice President and President respectively.
Addressing NPP youth wing in Accra during a meeting on Wednesday, Dr. Bawumia said he sometimes wonders whether former President Mahama has indeed been in office before, due to the manner in which Mahama carries himself as a new candidate as well as his failure to speak on his own record in government.
“Former President Mahama is not a new candidate. He is a known candidate who was in office for 8 years as Vice President and President,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“What the youth of this country should ask is, what did John Mahama do for the youth in eight (8) years of government.”
The Vice President recounted the mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy by the administration of Mahama, which he said, led to hardships for the youth in several ways including unemployment, withdrawal of support allowances, collapse of agriculture and massive dumsor, which the Vice President indicated affected several businesses owned by the youth and Ghanaians in general.
Dr. Bawumia said having mismanaged the economy and failed the youth of the country during his time as President, he is surprised the President is going round making promises as if he is a new person.
“Promises are one thing but deeds and actions are another. Actions speak louder than words and John Mahama’s record of incompetence has already spoken loudly,” Dr. Bawumia stated.
Youth-centred initiatives of Akufo-Addo Government
On the contrary, the Vice President noted that President Akufo-Addo has demonstrated his understanding of the issues Ghanaian youth face, and he has made moves to address them in three and half years.
The Vice President listed several youth-centred initiatives such as job creation through one district one factory, National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan, President’s Business Support Programme, Planting for Food and Jobs, Greenhouse Village Initiative, Campus Business Pitch, Presidential Empowerment for Women with Disability, revival of Anglogold Ashanti Obuasi Mine, NABCO, as well as other programs which he said the youth have benefitted from, such as restoration of teacher and nursing trainee allowances, refund of deposits of collapsed financial institutions, free water and electricity, etc.
“Over the last three and half years, we have developed and implemented many initiatives designed to place the youth in the forefront of national development,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“We have created over two million jobs in the public and private formal sectors since 2017 (inclusive of governemnt job-creation programmes and initiatives such as Plating for Food and Jobs, NBCO Graduate Programme and National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan.”
“Our policies have also led to significant job creation by the private sector , for example, through the revival of the Obuasi Mine of Anglogold Ashanti. Since its restart, from June 2018 to June 2020, the Obuasi Mine has employed 4,163 people on the mine rehabilitation project, and we have also created over two hundred and fidty thousand private formal sector jobs according to data from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).”
Dr. Bawumia stated that President Akufo-Addo has proved his understanding of issues affecting the youth and that having taken steps to tackle them in his first term, his next term will be more promising.
“President Akufo-Addo has demonstrated an understanding of the issues faced by the youth and he has done something about it,” Dr. Bawumia added.
“His second term will, by the grace of God, be transformational for this country with the youth at the cebter of that transformation.”
The meeting was also attended by the Chief of Staff at Office of the President, Hon. Akosua Frema Osei Opare, NPP National Chairman, Hon. Freddy Blay, NPP National Youth Organiser Sammy Awuku, NPP National Youth Organiser Henry Nana Boakye, NPP National Nasara Coordinator, Abdul Aziz Haruna Futa and other executives of the party.
