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Otabil’s special offering, Nana Addo's Special Prosecutor dilemma, and matters arising
Here's a review of what happened last week.
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Unfortunately, people in the northern region were badly hit by the heavy downpour, with four people losing their lives and properties worth thousands of Ghana cedis getting destroyed.
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, as usual, toured the affected areas and expressed his condolences to the families of those who lost their relatives in the incident.
READ ALSO: Death toll now rises to four
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He also assured that the government would address the perennial flooding in the metropolis.
The hope is that this should not be only words, but should be ones backed by actions to prevent the unfortunate from recurring.
The thing is, it is not unusual for the country to experience rainfall in June and July.
The flooding situation in Tamale and its environs are perennial. Choked drains and building on water ways are some of the major causes. It requires immediate attention.
Besides, the extent of damage by the rains shows whether the country has learned its lessons about the reality of climate change that affects weather patterns.
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Now, the people in the north are still counting their losses. But while they were at that, some security officers were busily searching for some documents in the form of dawn raids of homes of some MPs on the Minority Side, suspected to be linked to AMERI power deal.
Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, MP for Adansi Asokwa, former Deputy Minister of Energy and Ranking Member on Energy, had filed an urgent motion in Parliament to have the House rescind the US$ 510 million Ameri power deal, claiming that the cost was bloated.
READ MORE: Police raids house of former Power Minister
On Tuesday, Dr Donkor had his laptops and pen drives seized by some warrant holding officers after a search was conducted in his home.
Dr Donkor, who is also the Member of Parliament for Pru East said the security officials informed him that they were searching his house on the grounds that he had caused financial loss to the state in relation to the Ameri power deal.
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The latest were former Deputy Attorney General, Dominic Ayine and the Ex-Deputy Power Minister John Jinapor, whose houses were invaded on Friday.
But the bugging question now is: Who could have ordered the raid in the home of Dr Donkor, particularly when the former minister had before the raid held a meeting with K.T. Hammond [the ranking member who had earlier endorsed the deal but now wants parliament to rescind it] over issues with the deal.
The details of the said meeting are not known but Dr Donkor said that some “compromises” were made over the deal.
He, however, said the raid on his house has changed the dynamics of the compromises he had with the government officials and is now ready to face them in court.
For him, even though he suspects that some powerful hands are behind the raid, he knows for a fact that it is not from the presidency.
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He also reiterated that due diligence was done in the purchasing of the plant and the previous government did no wrong.
Personally, these backs and forth are not auguring well for us as a country.
And this is perhaps where we need the office of the Special Prosecutor to handle matters. But for now, we might have to keep our fingers crossed as the Bill to set up the office has even been withdrawn by the government.
The Parliamentary, Constitutional and Legal Committee of Parliament had earlier rejected a request by the government for the office of the Special Prosecutor’s Bill to be passed under a certificate of urgency.
The committee, therefore, recommended that the bill should be taken through all the normal processes.
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The minority in parliament had also before that raised procedural and constitutional issues with the bill, which definitely, should not be overlooked.
Yes, it is okay to have a special prosecutor to lessen the burden on the Attorney General who has the constitutional power to prosecute in the name of the republic.
But, we perhaps need to tread cautiously with this special prosecutor bill. The Constitution gives the power to the AG to prosecute and even to delegate those prosecution powers as well.
And hence, if the president wants the AG to share power with someone else, the president needs to be careful how it goes about it so that it does not appear as though he is dictating that pace.
As we already are aware, the Office of a Special Prosecutor was a major campaign promise of Nana Akufo-Addo while he was the opposition candidate in the December 2016 elections, and pressure is mounting on him to fulfil that promise since he assumed power.
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But is the Office really necessary, considering the AG is already prosecuting and will continue to prosecute? Why won’t we keep the status quo? Or do we feel that the presence of the special prosecutor whose seven-year stay in office is secure will ensure that we get the political neutrality we have been looking for? How can we be sure of this if the presidency is somehow involved in who gets appointed? Well, let’s see how it goes.
And let’s also see if the International Central Gospel Church will officially comment on the backlash it received from some Ghanaians when news broke that some members of the church were sowing seeds as much as 5,000 dollars in order to receive a miracle or favour from God.
Many have condemned the action and have since been asking if prayers are for sale. For some, the idea of seed-sowing is even alien to the church.
It has, however, become a phenomenon during its Greater Works conference as some of the guest speakers always end up bringing up the idea of seed-sowing, where blessings or miracles are categorised with specific amounts to be paid [special offering] for different categories.
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Interestingly, some members of the ICGC are not comfortable with this “money-collection” formats and want answers as to why it should continue.
Well, the latest is that Reverend Owusu Bempah, the leader and founder of Glorious Word Power Ministry International has asked Dr Otabil to apologise to Ghanaians over the matter, else he will have him [Bempah] to contend with. These are interesting times indeed.
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