Godfred Yeboah Dame

Godfred Yeboah Dame, former Attorney General and Minister for Justice has taken a swipe at President Johnson Dramani Mahama and his successor, Dr. Dominic Ayine, describing them as clearing agents who are discontinuing the criminal proceedings against former NDC appointees.

“The President, through his Attorney General, has spectacularly, become the clearing agent to indemnify their allies who have duly been put before the courts for commission of crimes.”

The former Attorney General also asserts that it could not be the case that the Attorney General solely decided to discontinue the cases against some high-profile members of the NDC without consulting the President or cabinet on such a monumental decision.

Mr. Dame, speaking at a press conference in response to Dr. Ayine’s justifications for discontinuing the cases, suggested that the AG’s claim is an attempt to shield the President from any blame given the public outcry following the decision to either withdraw charges or discontinue some of the cases.

Responsibility
Dr. Ayine speaking at a press conference on Wednesday said he takes full responsibility for discontinuing some high-profile cases initiated against some former appointees of the previous NDC administration.

According to him, he is not under instructions or pressure from anyone to discontinue the cases or bring charges against anyone.

He indicated that even President John Dramani Maham has no hand in the decision to drop the cases, hence urging the public to desist from calling the President a ‘clearing agent.’

“As the Attorney General, I take absolute responsibility for all the decisions taken so far. I am not under any instructions or pressure to discontinue any case or to bring charges against one.

Those who are in a haste to tag the President as a clearing agent should hasten slowly because he is not responsible for prosecutions and has not directed me to drop any case,” Dr. Ayine pointed out.

Dame Disagrees
But his predecessor, Godfred Yebboah Dame disagreed with that assertion, indicating that a careful examination of the facts shows that the Attorney General’s claim that he did not consult the President before taking the decision “is palpably untrue.”

“The nation has not forgotten the loud claims made by President John Mahama and the NDC that the NPP rather, was responsible for a collapse of the banking sector and that on assuming power, the John Mahama government will restore all the banking licences which were revoked.

The withdrawal of the cases in question is only the first step of the clearing or whitewashing process of those whose acts led to the crisis that plagued the banking sector.
Ghanaians are certainly more discerning than the NDC and Dr. Ayine think,” Mr. Dame noted.

He, however, noted that Ghanaians should be worried that the prosecutorial powers of the country have been vested in a person who can decide to discontinue these cases without any recourse to the President and his cabinet.

“Even more scary and bizarre is the claim of Dr. Ayine that he did not consult the President, John Dramani Mahama before taking the monumental decision to discontinue the criminal case,” he said.

Mr. Dame pointed out that the cases involved the loss of colossal sums of taxpayers’ money and some related to the banking sector crisis which affected the Ghanaian economy.

“The people of Ghana should indeed be extremely concerned and afraid by the vesting of prosecutorial authority in a person who can discontinue the prosecution of such important and high-profile cases without discussing with the President of the Republic and members of the Cabinet. Even defence counsel he consulted, how much more the President?” the former AG queried.

BY Gibril Abdul Razak

Davis Ansah Opoku and Ibrahim Mahama

New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Opoku, has revealed that he shares a very close relationship with business mogul Ibrahim Mahama, the brother of President John Dramani Mahama.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM, Opoku, who described Ibrahim Mahama as his ‘senior brother,’ explained that their bond was established long before he entered Parliament.

He recounted how the relationship grew stronger when Mahama surprised him by offering to fly him abroad and cover his medical expenses after a near-fatal accident.

“I am very close to Ibrahim Mahama. I see Ibrahim as a big brother. We have known each other for quite some time. But I think the height of it came when I had the accident in 2020. In February 2020, I was involved in a near-fatal accident. Two of the people in my vehicle went into a coma. I had both femurs broken, with the left side shattered.

“We were just entering the COVID period, so it was difficult for me to travel out. I remember some medical doctors came to me and said that the situation was bad. Within two, three, four hours, both legs were swollen heavily. What it meant was that I had some nerve damage, which affected proper blood flow. As a result, blood pooled around my thigh. They had to cut my trousers with scissors because I couldn’t pull them off,” he narrated.

He said that when he regained consciousness, he was informed that Ibrahim Mahama had offered to fly him out of the country for medical care.

“Harold, my good friend, told me a story. He said, ‘Do you know that we had to rush home, take your passport, your wife’s passport, your mother’s passport, and my passport, because Ibrahim Mahama had volunteered his private jet to fly you out of the country for medical reasons? And the gentleman was ready to pay your entire bill.’

“I was shocked and kept wondering what I had done to deserve such a favor. Ibrahim Mahama is a big man, and at that time, I wasn’t even a Member of Parliament,” he added.

He noted that Mahama’s kindness did not end there.

He indicated that Ibrahim Mahama continued to check on him regularly.

“He kept visiting me at the hospital, both in Ghana and abroad, during my rehabilitation. He even visited me multiple times when I went to Germany for medical care,” Opoku said.

The MP expressed deep gratitude for Ibrahim Mahama’s generosity and described the experience as a life-changing act of kindness.

Watch his remarks in the video below:

A relationship beyond partisan politics—MP for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Opoku, shares how Ibrahim Mahama supported him after he suffered a fatal accident. #DriveOnJoy pic.twitter.com/hh9sVFA71h

— Joy 99.7 FM (@Joy997FM) February 14, 2025

BAI/MA

You can also watch as John Jinapor narrates how National Security took his phone and laptop to the UK in 2017

By Iddi Yire

Accra, Feb 14, GNA – President John Dramani Mahama on Friday reiterated the need for African countries to become self-reliant following the withdrawal of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding support.

He said USAID’s withdrawal was adversity in opportunity, which must teach Africa to become more self-reliant.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany, President Mahama said prior to his departure for Munich, he issued a directive to the Minister of Finance to adjust in the budgets to take up the slack from the disruption in USAID funding.

This, he said amounted to $156 million for 2025, which was a bit above GH¢2 billion.

He said the USAID funding support to Ghana went into four critical areas of the economy, namely governance and democracy, healthcare, economic growth, and education.

He said the most critical was health because it went into maternities, PEPFAR

(US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) activities, that includes HIV testing and provision of antiretrovirals and other support in the healthcare space, which mounts to the biggest chunk of it was about $78 million dollars.

He reiterated that the Government would make budget adjustments, saying, “Happily, when we have elections, we don’t present the budget until the new government takes over”.

“And so, we’re supposed to present the budget in March, so it’s possible for us to make provision to cover what the shortfall in US assistance is going to be.”

Speaking on the topic “Building or Burning Bridges: Economic and Development Cooperation Amid Multi-polarisation”, President Mahama urged African leaders to put measures in place to help the most vulnerable in their society.

He said the US played a critical role in the post-world order, and that post-world order had benefited the whole globe, including the US.

“The US has prospered from the post-world order. But it has gotten to a stage where it wants to recalibrate, and it has a right to recalibrate. But I believe that the recalibration should be in a less disruptive manner than it is happening now,” President Mahama stated.

“One of the things that the US is going to lose is that soft power that it has wielded in the world. I mean, these are grateful for the kind of assistance that they get. And so, for the US to decide that, no, we don’t want to have anything to do with it anymore, then they lose some of that soft power.”

President Mahama said there were many other partners, and that Africa would continue to collaborate with other countries.

“And that’s why we have a multipolar world. We are no longer a unipolar world. And so, as bridges are burning, new bridges are being formed, and we need to look for those new bridges and be able to link the world to those new bridges.”

President Mahama said the US was well admired in a lot of the developing world for the kind of assistance that it gives for its presence in many theaters.

“And so, if it decides that it’s withdrawing, I think that there are many other countries that can fill the gap,” he added.

He said aside from filling the gap, the USAID withdrawal sends a signal to Africa that the time had come for them to be more self-reliant when it comes to issues, to do especially with the vulnerable in our society.

“We should roll out more safety nets. We must go for more equitable societies, bridge the gap between the rich and the poor, and put out opportunities for our young people to be able to make a life for themselves,” he said.

He said self-reliance was not only at the national level, but on the continental level and there’s good news coming out of Africa; declaring that most countries had ratified the protocol on continental free trade in Africa and that trade was beginning to grow steadily.

“We’re able to export tariff-free into our countries. Of course, there are obstacles because our trade channels have been the colonial trade channels between us and Europe and not amongst ourselves.”

He said some of the things they need to deal with first was how they develop their infrastructure to be able to exchange goods amongst ourselves.

He said there was trade growing exponentially among African countries and that he believes that Africa had the human resources – young bright people who were willing to grab innovations, and they need the leadership to drive that energy to make their countries prosper.

“But I do believe, as a student of psychology that in all adversities there is opportunity and new orders bring out of disruptions,” President Mahama said.

“The disruption that is taking place now is going to yield a new order because we will have to adapt to what is happening.”

GNA