Jail me! Mahama dares Nana

Former President John Dramani Mahama has thrown a challenge to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to arrest and prosecute him, if indeed he (Mahama) amassed wealth and acquired property during his tenure as president.

A fired-up Mr Mahama said the government could go ahead to take over his alleged hotel in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, if indeed, he owns such a facility.

The former president also said that he had been accused of owning ships in Tokyo, Japan and wondered what the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was waiting for before taking action against him.

The former president is said to have acquired several properties, especially in Dubai, as well as in Ghana, where cronies were said to have been used to acquire those properties.

One of such properties the former president has been linked to is the Homes Chain gated estate where he was residing lately.

Pressure

Addressing opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists in London, United Kingdom, Mr. Mahama put pressure on the NPP government to prove that he is corrupt, adding that all the allegations against him were baseless.

He also boasted that he ran an incorruptible government.

The ex-president asserted that the NPP government is in the business of manufacturing all kinds of allegations against him and the people who served under him.

Already, some of his appointees have been caught in the corruption web and facing prosecution in court.

Mr Mahama had advised NDC supporters to storm the court in solidarity with the accused appointees.

NDC’s Track Record

“I’ve always told the NDC that we should hold our heads high; let’s not be ashamed of our records like we did nothing,” he said, adding, “They say there was massive corruption, massive corruption where? They just kept manufacturing it and repeating it all the time.

“Go ahead and prosecute, we’ve told them. If I have done wrong prosecute me. They talk about hotels in Dubai, seize them, you’re in office. They talk about ships in Tokyo, go and take over them; I mean they talk about all kinds of lies and they kept on repeating them and people thought such things exist.”

Initial Challenge

This is not the first time Mr Mahama is throwing a challenge to President Akufo-Addo and his NPP government to take him and his appointees on, if indeed, they stole from the public purse.

At one of the NDC’s so-called ‘unity walks’ held in Techiman in the Brong-Ahafo Region in January, the former president had dared the NPP government to arrest him and his wife, Lordina, if the government believes they were in any way involved in the DKM Microfinance Company scandal that rocked the region and other places.

Thousands of customers of DKM Microfinance lost their investments, running into millions of Ghana cedis, after the owners of the company had allegedly squandered the investments of customers.

The unfortunate incident forced a number of people out of business while some even reportedly committed suicide.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) subsequently stepped in and declared the company bankrupt before confiscating its assets and appointing the Registrar General to commence a liquidation process to refund the customers’ investments in 2016.

Political Topic

It became a heated political topic in the run-up to the 2016 general elections, which Mr Mahama lost miserably, dashing his hope of securing a second term in office and thereby making him the first sitting president in Ghana’s political history to be defeated overwhelmingly by an opposition leader.

“When the DKM issue came up, the NPP accused my wife and me of owning that company. So they said when they come into power, they will retrieve the money from us and give it back to those it was taken from. By God’s grace today, they are now in power. I challenge them to investigate the ownership of DKM. If DKM is owned by my wife and me, arrest us; but they are now very quiet,” he had fired.

He added, “For lies, if you tell one, you have to keep telling lies to save yourself. It is said that you can lie to win power but you can’t govern a nation with lies,” he added.